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SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED 10) KDE Guide
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3.1 Understanding OpenOffice.org

This section contains information that applies to all of the application modules in OpenOffice.org. Module-specific information can be found in the sections relating to each module.

3.1.1 What’s New in OpenOffice.org 2.0

OpenOffice.org 2.0 contains many improvements and features that were not included in earlier versions. The biggest new feature is the Base database module. There have been many other changes since the previous version, such as enhanced PDF export and improved word count capabilities. For a complete list of features, fixes, and enhancements, go to the OpenOffice.org Web site (https://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/2.0/).

3.1.2 Enhancements in the Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org 2.0

The Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org included with SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop contains enhancements that are not available in the standard edition. These include:

Integration with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop

The Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org features redesigned tool bar icons for maximum consistency with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, including support for desktop appearance or theme changes. These features provide a consistent interface across the Linux desktop, which enhances overall usability and helps minimize enterprise training and support requirements.

Native Desktop Dialogs

The Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org uses your desktop’s native file dialogs rather than those in the standard edition. This provides the same look and feel of other applications in your environment, giving you a consistent, familiar experience.

Enhanced Support for Microsoft Office File Formats

OpenOffice.org supports import and export of Microsoft Office file formats, even taking advantage of compatible fonts to match document length. Transparent document sharing makes OpenOffice.org the best choice if you are deploying Linux desktops in a mixed Linux/Windows environment.

E-Mail as Microsoft Office Document

The standard edition of OpenOffice.org supports e-mailing of files as PDF files from within the OpenOffice.org application. With the Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org, you can also e-mail any document as a Microsoft Office file. For example, you can e-mail a Writer file as a Microsoft Word file. If that option is selected, the file is automatically converted and attached to an e-mail in your default e-mail application.

Excel VBA Macro Interoperability

The Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org eases the migration of many macros from Microsoft Excel. Although not all macros can be successfully migrated, this interoperability offers more than the standard edition, which does not support migration of macros.

Enhanced Fonts

For the Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org, Novell licensed fonts from AGFA that use the same or similar names as the fonts available in Microsoft Office. The fonts also look similar to those used by Microsoft. This allows OpenOffice.org to match fonts when opening documents originally composed in Microsoft Office, and very closely match pagination and page formatting.

Integration with Novell Evolution

The Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org is tightly integrated with Novell Evolution™, allowing users to send documents as e-mail and to perform mail merges using the Evolution address book as a datasource.

Improved File Access

Files are available from any source available to the computer. Network files open and save seamlessly.

Anti-aliased Presentation Graphics

With hardware acceleration enabled (the default), the Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org provides higher-quality graphics in Impress slide shows.

Faster Start-up Times

The Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org includes an improved built-in quickstarter that loads OpenOffice.org components at system startup and thus improves the application’s start-up time. Subsequent document load times have also been improved.

3.1.3 Using the Standard Edition of OpenOffice.org

The standard edition of OpenOffice.org also works with SLED. If you install the latest version of OpenOffice.org, all of your Novell Edition files remain compatible. However, the standard edition does not contain the Novell enhancements.

3.1.4 Compatibility with Other Office Applications

OpenOffice.org can work with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases in many other formats, including Microsoft Office. They can be seamlessly opened like other files and saved back to the original format. Because the Microsoft formats are proprietary and the specifications are not available to other applications, there are occasionally formatting issues. If you have problems with your documents, consider opening them in the original application and resaving in an open format such as RTF for text documents or CSV for spreadsheets.

HINT:For good information about migrating from other office suites to OpenOffice.org, refer to the OpenOffice.org Migration Guide (https://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/0600MG-MigrationGuide.pdf).

Converting Documents to the OpenOffice.org Format

OpenOffice.org can read, edit, and save documents in a number of formats. It is not necessary to convert files from those formats to the OpenOffice.org format to use those files. However, if you want to convert the files, you can do so. To convert a number of documents, such as when first switching to OpenOffice.org, do the following:

  1. Select File Wizard Document Converter .

  2. Choose the file format from which to convert.

    There are several StarOffice and Microsoft Office formats available.

  3. Click Next.

  4. Specify where OpenOffice.org should look for templates and documents to convert and in which directory the converted files should be placed.

    IMPORTANT: Documents from a Windows partition are usually in a subdirectory of /windows.

  5. Make sure that all other settings are appropriate, then click Next.

  6. Review the summary of the actions to perform, then start the conversion by clicking Convert.

    The amount of time needed for the conversion depends on the number of files and their complexity. For most documents, conversion does not take very long.

Sharing Files with Users of Other Office Suites

OpenOffice.org is available for a number of operating systems. This makes it an excellent tool when a group of users frequently need to share files and do not use the same system on their computers.

When sharing documents with others, you have several options.

If the recipient needs to be able to edit the file: Save the document in the format the other user needs. For example, to save as a Microsoft Word file, click File Save As, then select the Microsoft Word file type for the version of Word the other user needs.

If the recipient only needs to read the document: Export the document to a PDF file with File Export as PDF . PDF files can be read on any platform using a viewer like Adobe Acrobat Reader. ,

If you want to share a document for editing: Use one of the standard document formats. The default formats comply with the OASIS standard XML format, making them compatible with a number of applications. TXT and RTF formats, although limited in formatting, might be a good option for text documents. CSV is useful for spreadsheets. OpenOffice.org might also offer your recipient's preferred format, especially Microsoft formats.

If you want to e-mail a document as a PDF: Click File Send Document as PDF Attachment.Your default e-mail program opens with the file attached.

If you want to e-mail a document to a Microsoft Word user: Click File Send Document as MS-Doc Attachment. Your default e-mail program opens with the file attached.

3.1.5 Starting OpenOffice.org

  1. Start the application in one of the following ways:

    • On the menu bar, click Word Processor icon .

      This opens Writer. To open a different module, click File New from the newly opened Writer document, then choose the module you want to open.

    • From the Computer menu, click Computer More Applications Office, then click the name of the OpenOffice.org module you want to start.

    • In a terminal window, enter ooffice. The OpenOffice.org window opens. Click File New, then choose the module you want to open.

  2. Select the module you want to open.

If any OpenOffice.org application is open, you can open any of the other applications by clicking File New Name of Application .

3.1.6 Improving OpenOffice.org Load Time

To speed up the load time of OpenOffice.org by preloading the application at system startup:

  1. Click Tools Options Memory.

  2. Select Start at Startup.

The next time you restart your system, OpenOffice.org will preload. When you open an OpenOffice.org application module, it will open faster.

3.1.7 Customizing OpenOffice.org

You can customize OpenOffice.org to best suit your needs and working style. Toolbars, menus, and keyboard shortcuts can all be reconfigured to help you more quickly access the features you use the most. You can also assign macros to application events if you want specific actions to occur when those events take place. For example, if you always work with a specific spreadsheet, you can create a macro that opens the spreadsheet and assign it to the Start Application event.

This section contains simple, generic instructions for customizing your environment. The changes you make are effective immediately, so you can see if the changes are what you wanted and go back and modify them if they weren’t. See the OpenOffice.org help files for detailed instructions.

Customizing Toolbars

Use the Customize dialog to modify OpenOffice.org toolbars.

  1. Click the arrow icon at the end of any toolbar.

  2. Click Customize Toolbar .

  3. Select the toolbar you want to customize.

  4. Select the check boxes next to the commands you want to appear on the toolbar, and deselect the check boxes next to the commands you don’t want to appear.

  5. Select whether to save your customized toolbar in the OpenOffice.org module you are using or in the document.

    • OpenOffice.org module

      The customized toolbar is used whenever you open that module.

    • Document filename

      The customized toolbar is used whenever you open that document.

  6. Repeat to customize additional toolbars.

  7. Click OK.

You can quickly choose the buttons that appear on a particular toolbar.

  1. Click the arrow icon at the end of the toolbar you want to change.

  2. Click Visible Buttons to display a list of buttons.

  3. Select the buttons in the list that appears to enable (check) or disable (uncheck) them.

Customizing Menus

You can add or delete items from current menus, reorganize menus, and even create new menus.

  1. Click Tools Customize Menu.

  2. Select the menu you want to change, or click New to create a new menu.

    Click Help for more information about the options in the Customize dialog.

  3. Modify, add, or delete menu items as desired.

  4. Click OK.

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

You can reassign currently assigned keyboard shortcuts and assign new shortcuts to frequently used functions.

  1. Click Tools Customize Keyboard.

  2. Select the keys you want to assign to a function, or select the function and assign the keys or key combinations.

    Click Help for more information about the options in the Customize dialog.

  3. Modify, add, or delete keyboard shortcuts as desired.

  4. Click OK.

Customizing Events

OpenOffice.org also provides ways to assign macros to events such as application startup or the saving of a document. The assigned macro runs automatically whenever the selected event occurs.

  1. Click Tools Customize Events.

  2. Select the event you want to change.

    Click Help for more information about the options in the Customize dialog box.

  3. Assign or remove macros for the selected event.

  4. Click OK.

Changing the Global Settings

Global settings can be changed in any OpenOffice.org application by clicking Tools Options on the menu bar. This opens the window shown in the figure below. A tree structure is used to display categories of settings.

Figure 3-1 The Options Window

The following table lists the settings categories along with a brief description of each category:

Table 3-2 Global Setting Categories

Settings Category

Description

OpenOffice.org

Various basic settings, including your user data (such as your address and e-mail), important paths, and settings for printers and external programs.

Load/Save

Includes the settings related to the opening and saving of several file types. There is a dialog for general settings and several special dialogs to define how external formats should be handled.

Language Settings

Covers the various settings related to languages and writing aids, such as your locale and spell checker settings. This is also the place to enable support for Asian languages.

Internet

Includes the dialogs to configure any proxies and to change settings related to search engines.

Text Document

Configures the global word processing options, such as the basic fonts and layout that Writer should use.

HTML Document

Changes the settings related to the HTML authoring features of OpenOffice.org.

Spreadsheet

Changes the settings for Calc, such as those related to sort lists and grids.

Presentation

Changes the settings that should apply to all presentations. For example, you can specify the measurement unit for the grid used to arrange elements.

Drawing

Includes the settings related to the vector drawing module, such as the drawing scale, grid properties, and some print options.

Formula

Provides a single dialog to set special print options for formulas.

Chart

Defines the default colors used for newly created charts.

Data Sources

Defines how external data sources should be accessed.

IMPORTANT:All settings listed in the table are applied globally. They are used as defaults for every new document you create.

3.1.8 Finding Templates

Templates greatly enhance the use of OpenOffice.org by simplifying formatting tasks for a variety of different types of documents. OpenOffice.org comes with a few templates, and you can find additional templates on the Internet. You can also create your own. Creating templates is beyond the scope of this guide, but detailed instructions are found in the OpenOffice.org help system and in other documents and tutorials available online.

In addition to templates, you can find other extras and add-ins online. The following table lists a few of the prominent places where you can find templates and other extras. (Because Web sites often close or their content changes, the information in the following table might not be current when you read it.)

Table 3-3 Where to Find OpenOffice.org Templates and Extras

Location

What You Can Find

OpenOffice.org documentation Web site (https://documentation.openoffice.org/Samples_Templates/User/template_2_x/index.html)

Templates for Calc spreadsheets, CD cases, seed packets, fax cover sheets, and more

Worldlabel.com (https://www.worldlabel.com/Pages/openoffice-template.htm)

Templates for many types of labels

For more information about templates, see Section 3.2.4, Using Templates to Format Documents and Section 3.3.2, Using Templates in Calc.

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