Yes, that is a Web address and a name. OpenOffice.org uses its Web address as the name of the program suite. Some might call it clever. Some might call it marketing. I will just call it a name. The OpenOffice.org productivity suite includes most of the program types that you expect in an office suite. There is a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation creator, and a program for diagrams. OpenOffice is a direct assault on the Microsoft Office suite. Every program in OOo is designed to be able to open documents from its MS Office counterpart and to come close to approximating the features in the MS Office programs. Sometimes OpenOffice hits the mark beautifully, and sometimes you grin and bear the differences. Besides trying to equal Microsoft Office, OpenOffice does a good job of taking itself seriously enough to come up with unique features of its own. All the OpenOffice programs are available for both Linux and Windows. Mac users can also run OOo through Apple's X Server program. This cross-platform compatibility of OpenOffice.org means that you can smoothly share documents with users of other operating systemsas soon as you talk them into using OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office.
OpenOffice.org Writer
OpenOffice.org Writer is one of the two main anchors of the OOo office suite. Writer is a great program that can live up to the expectations of MS Word users most of the time. The only places where Writer might be said to fail are really not failures as much as differences in the tools of the programs. Writer is a sophisticated word-processing program with many basic text- and paragraph-formatting options, tables, the capability to embed images, styles, and good document-layout features. You can use Writer for more complex duties than simple letter or document word processing. You can work collaboratively with the versioning system that allows for changes to documents to be accepted or rejected. Autocorrection has strong choices in its settings to correct most minor typing mistakes. You can also mark spelling and grammar mistakes as you type. Documents can use database merging for form letters and addressing. There are also indexing functions for navigating long documents. I like using the program, but a few aspects of OpenOffice.org Writer still bug me. Some fonts still display oddly in Writer, even though they display smoothly in other programs. Table creation and editing work all right but are kind of awkward. The Stylist handles document styles created or edited in Writer quite well, with some style features more usable than they are in MS Office, but the Stylist freaks out a bit with complex styles that are brought in through a document created in another word-processing program and fails to display some underlining or adds odd characters. The layout of OOo Writer (see Figure 8.2) is simple and similar to other word-processing programs. The differences come in the left sidebar and the various floating windows. Your toolbars and the sidebar are almost fully customizable by right-clicking a toolbar and choosing Customize. Many tools, such as the Stylist (Format > Stylist), pop up in floating windows that you can move around wherever you need them. The basic text-formatting options on the toolbars, such as fonts, bold, alignment, and indenting, are very easy to use and can be applied with just a click of the mouse. The best way to start becoming comfortable and familiar with the tools in Writer is to get started using it and exploring. Figure 8.2. OpenOffice.org Writer.
OpenOffice.org Calc
Calc is the free alternative to Microsoft Excel. Now, most frequent Excel users are very informed about financial functions. OOo Calc meets and exceeds the bar set by Excel to such a degree that the money people should look at the price comparison between free and complicated licensing scheme and never look back. Calc is a great spreadsheet program with a wide range of functions to choose from, good customizing options, great chart and graphing tools in 2D or 3D, and the capability to pull data from external databases. If you are a dedicated number cruncher, you don't need me to tell you where anything is in the OpenOffice.org Calc interface (see Figure 8.3). All the tools you need will be easy to find and intuitive to use. Novices to spreadsheets will find help by using built-in templates, formulas, and functions. You can also use formulas with words instead of cell references, such as "expenses budget." Figure 8.3. OpenOffice.org Calc showing the current cost figures in the search for Clippy.
A few bugs still pop up in OOo Calc, but they are usually minor and are already documented on the Web site. Each new version of the OpenOffice.org suite fixes the bugs you knew about and many that you didn't. Excel is full of wizards that are not in Calc. Some new users might rue the lack of step-by-step help, but experienced spreadsheet users will breathe a sigh of relief at being able to do what they want to do without having to go through the extra steps. A few font display problems still in Calc are similar to the quirks in Writer, but spreadsheets print nicely and do not carry the font display issue to the printer. Calc is fast and has a good utilitarian feel that you need when working with numbers and formulas.
OpenOffice.org Impress
I have a pun, but I am going to put it away in the drawer where bad puns belong. It was a pun about being impressed. You are now free to groan. The reason for my bad pun attempt is that OpenOffice.org Impress (see Figure 8.5) does not quite live up to its counterpart in the MS Office world as well as OOo Writer and OOo Calc live up to theirs. Impress is good at keeping basic with what it does, but it lacks the power of Microsoft PowerPoint. I give Impress kudos for a good try, though. Impress seems a little less mature than Writer or Calc, but it does show off some good features. Figure 8.5. OpenOffice.org Impress.When you open OOo Impress, you can use a wizard to fill in the base information for a quick presentation. This setup works quite well for most users who need to create a presentation full of slides with bullet points and titles. You can add clip art, work with drawing tools, and add animated special effects for transitions. Impress also works well with OpenOffice Draw to bring in graphics created in Draw. One saving grace in Impress for busy users who don't want to mess with the details is an autolayout feature that arranges your text and bullet points in an attractive layout on each slide so you don't have to. You can then tweak the layout as much as you need. Impress is a great tool for quick presentations, but it does lack a few of the more sophisticated features found in MS PowerPoint and Apple's KeyNote. If you just need to create a simple presentation with a few animations to show off your points, this program does a great job. OpenOffice.org Draw
OpenOffice.org Draw is an odd duck. The program is both a standalone program and a complementary program to OOo Writer. There isn't really a direct counterpart for Draw to compete against in the MS Office world, although it can handle some of the work you might use Visio for without specializing in those tasks. Draw is a simple graphics tool that enables you to create quick sketch representations or complex diagrams. You can create 2D and 3D shapes (see Figure 8.6), use connectors for flowcharts and network diagrams, and use Bezier curves. Figure 8.6. OpenOffice.org Draw showing some basic shapes.To create shapes and graphics, you mostly use the tools on the left sidebar and then supplement those with formatting buttons on the top toolbars for things such as color and text formatting. You can turn text into shapes, similar to but more powerful than MS Office's Word Art. Importing and exporting images is easy, with support for GIF, PNG, JPG, TIF, and BMP. Don't expect to be able to edit photo images in Draw, though; you can edit only graphics created in Draw. |