What OpenOffice.org Is and What OpenOffice.org Does

OpenOffice.org is a set of integrated programs maintained by the OpenOffice.org team that you download from the OpenOffice.org Web site. Talk about name branding!

Originally, a German company named StarDivision created StarOffice in the mid-1980s. Sun Microsystems purchased StarOffice in 1999 and added features, lowered the price (to free ), and changed the name to OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org works on the Windows, Linux, Macintosh, FreeBSD, and Solaris operating systems too. Current versions of OpenOffice.org share most features and an almost identical interface with Sun Microsystem's StarOffice package, a suite offered for sale as another alternative to Microsoft Office.

NOTE

This book assumes you use a Windows operating system environment, although OpenOffice.org works uniformly on any supported operating system. So even if you work on a Solaris or Macintosh computer, you'll feel right at home here as you learn OpenOffice.org along with Windows readers.

OpenOffice.org offers integrated software tools that are powerful yet easy to learn and use. Offices large and small can use OpenOffice.org “based applications for many of their day-to-day computer needs, as can families and home-based businesses that want simple but robust writing and analysis tools for their computers.

With each new revision, OpenOffice.org takes you to the next step with an improved user interface and more solid features that help you become more productive in the way you use the OpenOffice.org products. The OpenOffice.org Web site is loaded with information, technical support, white papers, forums, press information, upcoming events, and manuals that give you support and background information about OpenOffice.org.

NOTE

OpenOffice.org is often abbreviated OOo .

With OpenOffice.org's help, you'll get your work done better and more quickly. OpenOffice.org automates many computing chores and provides tools that work in unison and share data between them.

There can be no hiding the fact that OpenOffice.org is a direct competitor to Microsoft Office. On a price/performance comparison, OpenOffice.org mangles Microsoft Office, even though Microsoft Office is more powerful than OpenOffice.org, at rare times more stable (depending on which Microsoft Office updates you've applied recently and how stable they are), and is better refined in certain tasks . For example, adjusting graphic images in a multicolumned document or on an Impress presentation isn't quite as simple as the same task in Word or PowerPoint. Yet, those fine- tuned advances in Microsoft Office come at a price, and the price is steep compared to the free OpenOffice.org system.

Lots of politics exist between those in the OpenOffice.org camp and those in the Microsoft Office camp. Throughout this book, I'll do my best to display my encouragement and strong support for OpenOffice.org, its concepts, and its power. At the same time, I don't want to enter the political debate between those on the OpenOffice.org side and those on the Microsoft Office side. I see no reason why both cannot coexist, especially given the ease with which OpenOffice.org works with Microsoft Office files.

The OpenOffice.org Web site dedicates itself to helping you use OpenOffice.org better.

NOTE

One of OpenOffice.org's primary strengths (in addition to its free price tag) is its strong support for Microsoft Office files. OpenOffice.org opens, converts, and lets you edit virtually any document that you or someone else created in Word, PowerPoint, or Excel. When you move to OpenOffice.org, you don't lose work created elsewhere.

What's in OpenOffice.org?

OpenOffice.org contains the most needed applications ”a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation program, a drawing program ”and more inside a single system. OpenOffice.org is designed so that its programs work well together, and although you might not need every program in OpenOffice.org, you can easily share information between any OpenOffice.org programs that you do want to use. Program collections such as OpenOffice.org are often called program suites .

The following is a quick overview of the primary OpenOffice.org programs:

• Writer ” A word processor with which you can create notes, memos, letters , school papers, business documents, books, newsletters, and even Web pages.

  KEY TERM

  

  Suite ” An application that contains multiple programs, each of which performing a separate function. These programs generally work well together, with each one easily reading the other programs' data.

  
  

• Calc ” An electronic spreadsheet program with which you can create graphs and worksheets for financial and other numeric data. After you enter your financial data, you can analyze it for forecasts, generate numerous what-if scenarios, and publish worksheets on the Web.

• Impress ” A presentation graphics program with which you can create presentations for seminars , schools , churches , Web pages, and business meetings. Not only can Impress create the presentation overheads, but it can also create the speaker's presentation notes and print compacted audience handouts.

  NOTE

  

  Calc includes database capabilities also, so you can easily organize, sort , analyze, collect, and report from a massive repository of data, such as your company's inventory.

  
  

• Draw ” A powerful drawing program that you use to create drawings, utilize predesigned shapes , develop logos, and even design Web page graphics.

In addition to these four major programs, OpenOffice.org includes several other features, such as an HTML editor for Web page design and editing as well as a mathematical formula editor that you use to create complex math equations (see 30 Use Mathematical Formulas in Documents ).

All the OpenOffice.org programs share common features and common menu choices. The next two figures show an Impress editing session and a Draw editing session. Even though the Impress screen shows a slide from a presentation and the Draw screen shows a flier being created, the surrounding interface elements are extremely similar. The menus , toolbars , and status bar buttons are almost identical for both programs. When you learn one OpenOffice.org program, you are well on your way to knowing quite a bit about all the other OpenOffice.org programs, too.

When you design and edit presentations with Impress, you'll recognize the interface because OpenOffice.org programs share a similar interface.

Draw's menu, toolbars, and status bar elements are virtually identical to those of other OpenOffice.org programs, especially those of Impress.

In addition to working with familiar interfaces in the OpenOffice.org products, you can insert data that you create in one program into another program within the OpenOffice.org suite. If you create a financial table with Calc, for instance, you can put the table in a Writer document that you send to your board of directors and embed the table in an Impress presentation to stockholders . Once you learn how to use any program in the OpenOffice.org suite, you will be far more comfortable using all the others because of the common interface.

OpenOffice.org Is Versatile

The OpenOffice.org products are general purpose, meaning that you can customize applications to suit your needs. You can use Calc as your household budgeting program, for example, and also as your company's interactive balance-sheet system.

You can integrate OpenOffice.org into your networked system. This way, OpenOffice.org provides useful features whether you are networked to an intranet, to the Internet, or to both. You can share OpenOffice.org information with others across the network. OpenOffice.org fits well within the online world by integrating Internet access throughout the OpenOffice.org suite.

Introducing Writer

When you need to write any text-based document, look no further than Writer. Writer is a word processor that supports many features, including the following:

• Automatic corrections for common mistakes as you type using special automatic-correcting tools that watch the way you work and adapt to your needs

• Templates and styles that make quick work of your document's formatting

• Advanced page layout and formatting capabilities

• Numbering, bulleting, bordering, and shading tools

• Integrated grammar and spelling tools to help ensure your document's accuracy

• Newsletter-style multiple columns , headers, footers, and endnotes in your publications

• Graphical tools that enable you to emphasize headers, draw lines and shapes around your text, and work with imported art files in your documents

The next figure shows a Writer editing session. Even though Writer is a word processor, you can see from the figure that it supports advanced formatting, layout, and graphics capabilities so that you can produce professional documents, covers, and title pages using Writer.

Writer easily handles text, graphics, and advanced formatted layout of any document you wish to create.

Introducing Calc

Calc's primary goal is to help you organize and manage financial information such as income statements, balance sheets, and forecasts. Calc is an electronic spreadsheet program that supports many features, including the following:

• Automatic cell formatting

• Automatic worksheet computations that enable you to generate a worksheet that automatically recalculates when you make a change to a portion of the worksheet

• Built-in functions, such as financial formulas, that automate common tasks

• Automatic row and column completion of value ranges with automatic completion of ranges of data

• Formatting tools that let you turn worksheets into professionally produced reports

• Powerful data sorting, searching, filtering, and analyzing tools that enable you to turn data into an organized collection of meaningful information

• Powerful charts and graphs that can analyze your numbers and turn them into simple trends

The following figure shows a Calc editing session. The user is entering income statement information. If you have worked with other worksheet programs, you might be surprised at how fancy Calc can get. Calc's automatic formatting capabilities make creating advanced worksheets easy.

Calc helps you create, edit, and format numeric worksheets.

Introducing Impress

Have you ever presented a talk and longed for a better approach to messy overhead slides? Have you seen the pros wow their audiences with eye-catching, professional computerized presentations? With Impress, there is simply no reason why you shouldn't be wowing your audiences as well. Professional presentations are now within your reach.

Impress supports many features, including the following:

• The use of the AutoPilot feature to generate presentations automatically

• Sample design templates that provide you with a fill-in-the-blank presentation

• A screen display that imitates how a slide projector displays slides

• Complete color and font control of your presentation slides

• A collection of art files, icons, and sounds that you can embed to make your presentations more attention-getting

• Numerous transitions and fades between presentation slides to keep your audience's attention

• The capability to save presentations as Web pages that you can then present on the Internet

The next figure shows an Impress editing session. The user is getting ready for a presentation and has only a few minutes to prepare six color slides for the meeting. With Impress, a few minutes are more than enough time!

Introducing Draw

With Draw, you can generate drawings and graphics. Draw supports all popular graphics formats, both for importing images and for the drawings you want to save. You can create freeform drawings and you can use Draw's predesigned shapes to create more modern artwork, such as a commercial artist may require.

Here are just a few features that Draw supports:

• The use of predefined geometric shapes to include in your drawings

• The ability to create and use built-in three-dimensional shapes to add depth to your images

• The ability to adjust the perceived light source on the objects you draw to add realism

• The ability to convert two-dimensional text and graphics to three dimensions

• The ability to logically connect objects so that when you move or resize one, other objects adjust accordingly

Impress helps you create, edit, and format professional presentations.

The next figure shows a Draw editing session. The drawing contains both text and graphics. Draw's ability to combine both text and graphics makes it great for businesses that need to design brochures , ads, fliers, logos, and other artwork necessary throughout the world.

No Database ”Except There Is a Database!

Unlike Microsoft Office's Access database, OpenOffice.org doesn't offer a separate, standalone database management program. Nevertheless, Calc includes several built-in database features, and you will be able to use Calc for a surprising amount of database work.

With Draw, you can create impressive drawings and include text with them.

Calc's database capabilities include the following:

• The ability to store large amounts of data

• Filters that let you see only the data you need right now

• Groupings on subtotals, totals, and grand totals that enable you to see decision-making data such as company, division, and individual store totals

• The ability to import data from outside databases such as Microsoft Access

The next figure shows a Calc database session. As you can see, Calc can manage a lot of data. Although you see all the data here, the drop-down list boxes provide filters for you to limit the data you want to see, as well as other tools to sort and group the data in a more meaningful way, depending on your needs.

Let Calc manage your database.