The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Benefits To Be Gained From Using OpenOffice.org Rob Reilly robreilly@earthlink.net

For years I struggled to pay for the next copy of Microsoft Office, longing for the day when a low cost and full featured alternative office suite would appear on the scene. Sure, there was WordPerfect and a few other word processing spreadsheet and presentation programs out there, but they were also fairly expensive and they all cost money that I wasn't happy paying.

My saviour came in the form of OpenOffice.org. I had been using Linux for some time with StarOffice and while usable, it didn't really seem complete. OpenOffice.org is a spin off from StarOffice, it is Open Source and has just about everything I needed. Also, I was looking for that last piece of the puzzle so I could move completely away from using Windows on both my laptops and desktops.

OpenOffice.org is freely available on the Web with a simple download. Windows users can take advantage of the Open Source movement and stop worrying about licensing issues by putting the Windows version of this product on their Windows machines. Do you want to help spread the Open Source gospel? Simply contact the OpenOffice.org team and volunteer to help with the project or send them a donation.

Don't just take my word for it. You should make your own decision about trying OpenOffice.org at home or in your business. Like any product it has its strengths and limitations. I'll be discussing those in the following paragraphs. I think it's a solid product and I use it for all of my word processing, spreadsheet and seminar presentation needs.

Now that the sales pitch is over, let's see how to get it installed.

Download and Enjoy

The OpenOffice.org 1.1.0 package is 76 MB for the Linux version and 64 MB for the Windows version. If you have broadband you can downloaded it from their Web site at http://www.openoffice.org. The installation for both systems is not difficult and you can find instructions on that site. Often it's available on magazine cover discs [Ed: See also the Melb PC October Monthly CD files - GT], or if necessary download it via dial-up. Be sure to burn a CD copy so that you have a backup and/or can pass on OpenOffice.org to friends.

Are you worried that you might not have the hardware horsepower to run a big package like OpenOffice.org? Don't be concerned. From my past articles, you know that I am a big fan of running "obsolete" hardware, especially with Linux. My ancient 6 year-old PII 300 MHz no-name laptop has 256 MB RAM, a 10 GB HDD, CD reader and 14.1 inch screen. I run SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional (2.4.18 Kernel) and get by just fine with the KDE 3.0 desktop. OpenOffice.org works great on my laptop.

My 7 year old daughter has an old Windows 98 desktop with a 166 MHz Pentium chip, 128 MB RAM and a 3 GB HDD that runs OpenOffice.org version 1.0.3. Whenever she wants to create some text, she just fires up OpenOffice.org and types away. The Windows version is completely stable and fast, even on that old forgotten desktop machine. The box was a gift and since I had a spare copy of Windows 98, and she needed Windows for her current set of educational games, well... you know...

The Big View

OpenOffice.org is remarkably similar to other office productivity tools in layout and function. If you can use Microsoft Office you will have absolutely no problem getting around in OpenOffice.org. Needless to say it isn't an exact clone of other products. However, the look, feel and functionality are identical for the versions under Windows and Linux.

Once you get the program installed and loaded, switching between the word processor, spreadsheet and so on is seamless. The overall appearance stays the same across all applications. The menus configure themselves to match the file type. For example, if you are editing a text document the word processing menus and tool bars will show up. If you are creating a presentation, the presentation specific menus show up. It's all automatic and easy to use.

Let's take a quick look at editing a document with OpenOffice.org Writer.

Right Writing With Writer

Starting up a new text document is easy. Simply click on the "File", "New" and "Text Document" buttons. Or, if you have some existing Word documents click "File", "Open" and then pick the file name. Figure 1 shows a standard OpenOffice.org Writer screen.

One of the first things you'll notice is the limited number of fonts available. And if you're editing a Word document, the fonts may not be what they were originally. I told you there were a few limitations and OpenOffice.org just makes some default choices. Not to worry though, because you can pull in your favourite fonts by putting them in the "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1" directory (under Linux) or by using the font replacement feature under "Tools", "Options" , "OpenOffice.org" and then "Fonts".

Perhaps you edit complicated documents with graphics, tables and hyperlinks. If so, try out the "Navigator" function under the "Edit" menu. The navigator gives a tree like view of all the elements in your document. If there are notes, bookmarks or graphics in your document you can go right to them by clicking on that item in the navigator tree. The names of the entities represent the type of object and are (by default) numerically incremented. For clarity, you could rename the object in the navigator tree structure so that it will be more easily recognized later. The Navigator can be started from the main menu bar by selecting the 4-sided pinwheel star. Figure 2 and 3 show the Navigator menu with instances of an early Figure 1 and a hyperlink.

OpenOffice.org also has a feature that enables you to do some Photoshop-like operations right there on the screen within Writer. Highlight the graphical piece in your document and a menu bar will show up that allows you to adjust the graphics mode, red/green/blue colour, brightness, gamma and other things. The effects are applied very quickly and are individually set for each graphical element in your text. Now you can get those pictures to look just right without having to start up an external graphics program and go through the hassle of importing them several times. To crop the image, flip it horizontally or vertically and do other tricks, just click on the graphics property button (on the far right), when a graphical element is highlighted. The functions are fast acting, so you don't have to wait long.

A related area that you should be aware of is the default measurement unit. By default my version of OpenOffice.org started up using centimetres. The Word documents I imported displayed and printed correctly, even before I changed the default from centimetres to inches. Interesting. The measurement setting can be changed under the "Tools" menu bar, then "Options", then "Text Documents" and finally "General". I switched over to inches while still in my document and the column margin numbers magically changed to inches. Now my margins are from 0 to 6 inches instead of 0 to 15.2 centimetres. Once I switched to inches, subsequent text documents always came up in inches.

I tried saving a document in several formats. OpenOffice.org uses its own format (.SXW extension) by default. If you work with Word files on a regular basis, just change the default file type to Word 97/2000/XP.
OpenOffice.org warns you that some data may be lost by using a format other than the standard OpenOffice.org text document format. I've saved many documents in Word format and found that there might be a few little glitches with bullets or tabs. You have to remember that format conversion between products can be very tricky and there are bound to be some minor differences. Also, keep in mind that Microsoft "upgrades" its formats on a regular basis.

A new feature that has just shown up in version 1.1.0 is the ability to export as PDF files. I always thought scrolling through an Acrobat file was tedious. But if you need to produce documents that aren't meant to be changed, a PDF file gives you that option. Also companies and organizations seem to be using PDFs more and more. Look under "File" and then "Export as PDF".

It All Adds Up With Calc

OpenOffice.org spreadsheets are worked using Calc. See figure 4. Since I use spreadsheets for keeping tabular data, lists and doing some charting, my evaluation has focused strictly on the basics. Accountants and statisticians who make heavy use of macros and processes to help them analyze their numbers, will have to investigate those features under OpenOffice.org on their own. I simply don't work with them enough to give the topic deep coverage. Another limitation? Perhaps, but don't forget that you can evaluate any of OpenOffice's features for free. Evaluating proprietary software for your business is much more difficult.
 

Importing an Excel spreadsheet is incredibly easy. Load the .XLS file and the spreadsheet looks just like the original.

Multiplying numbers are handled in the traditional way, an equals sign followed by data, then an operator followed by the next data element and so on. At the end of the operation just press the return key and the result will be calculated. Sorting of columns of numbers and text also works as you would expect.

Calc also lets you create many different types of charts using the charting wizard under the "Insert" and "Chart" menu selections. The wizard will walk you through defining the column data, specifying the first column as the label and entering the x and y titles. You can choose between line, pie and bar charts.

I have found that Calc is a solid spreadsheet application and use it just about every day. But, maybe you're more of a PowerPoint user than a spreadsheet person. Next we'll see how OpenOffice.org can help you when you're standing in the spotlight and making your sales pitch.

Impress the Audience

Executives and middle managers who are heavy PowerPoint users will be very happy with the presentation application named Impress. It will suck in your existing PowerPoint presentations with little effort.

Again, you'll have to make sure your favourite fonts are loaded beforehand, otherwise OpenOffice.org will use its modest set of defaults. I think the font problem is a matter of licensing. Microsoft and other font makers each have their copyright policies and the OpenOffice.org team has wisely chosen to let the user sort out which fonts will be on their systems. I've exported presentations (including my favourite fonts) back to a .PPT format under Windows PowerPoint without any loss of data or formatting.

You should also do a quick check on your measurement units to make sure they are correct for your purpose (inches, centimetres, etc.).

Busy consultants and seminar leaders will like the feature that enables them to convert their pitch to HTML. I built a set of Web pages from my recent "Bringing Linux Into Your Business" presentation. Check it out for yourself on my Web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~robreilly/biz/lbiz.html. As you can see OpenOffice.org exports Web pages with simple controls (built right on the top of each page) for moving forward and backwards through the slides. It even built a start page with my name, e-mail, Web site and the table of contents. Talk about easy. I didn't have to edit a single line of HTML code and the rendering was great under both the Mozilla and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. I've also included the OpenOffice.org file for download, so you can compare it to the generated Web page. Do you have some ideas now for new seminar products?

Take a look at Impress in Figure 5. Also, I tested the PDF export function and it worked like a charm. Most likely you'll be impressed with Impress. At some point though, you'll need to connect some boxes on a diagram or make some other type of business graphics for your presentations. That's where OpenOffice.org Draw can make your life easy.
 

Draw It Up With Draw

The OpenOffice.org Draw program is great for business type graphics. The program is very similar to Visio in the Windows environment. All functions for drawing and manipulating lines, boxes, circles and text worked exactly how you would expect.

In my consulting and seminar work I frequently need to produce block and process diagrams for clients and presentations. Draw lets you connect boxes, circles and graphical images with a huge variety of line types. Also, when you move a box the line stays connected and reroutes itself. Just try to do that with a bitmap type graphics program. Some readers might be familiar with the Windows program named Micrografx. I used it in my Windows days. OpenOffice.org Draw is much easier to use, is more stable and exports much nicer Web pages than Micrografx. To me, the Micrografx produced Web pages just never seemed to look sharp or have all the graphical elements in the right places. I can definitely recommend the OpenOffice.org drawing program for Web page exporting.

OpenOffice.org lets you create groups of graphical images from imported drawings or from scratch, but doesn't really give you a comprehensive library set to start with. That's OK, I never really liked the various shape libraries in Visio anyway. I've seen too many presentations that use the same tired, standard shapes that come bundled with mainstream drawing packages. That's one reason why I purchased one of those 350,000 graphics images collections. Also, don't forget that as you build your brand, be it for a company or your own business, designing your own distinctive shapes and graphical images gives you that competitive edge. The audiences will remember your graphics, associate them to you and will be impressed with fresh images.

Wrap Up

Now are you all excited about trying out the latest in Open Source office productivity suites?
OpenOffice.org will take care of almost any office documentation task. It can be downloaded from the Web and is packed with great features.

I'm so happy with the features and performance of OpenOffice.org that it's all I use. As a matter of fact, this story was written exclusively using OpenOffice.org.

Give it a try. I think you'll like it.

About the Author
Rob Reilly (aka: "Dr. Torque"), robreilly@earthlink.net, is a writer, speaker and consultant involved in high technology, wireless and seminars. He is a strong advocate of hot-rodding obsolete PC hardware using Open Source Software and is always interested in stories and projects involving cool products, business applications and Linux.

Reprinted from the October 2003 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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