Taming OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org (OOo) is a suite of programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases and drawings. It is free to download, use and distribute. It is available in many languages and runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, Solaris, and other operating systems. You can get it from the OpenOffice.org website. Mac PPC users look here.

A good introduction is Introducing OpenOffice.org (PDF).

Scroll down to see recent posts in this blog.

What’s on this site?

Comments, tips, and pointers to articles written by other people about the various components of OpenOffice.org. Click on the links in the navigation bar at the top of any page, or search the blog.

Note: Some of the material on this site may be out of date. Some of it was originally written for OpenOffice.org 1.1.3 and has not been updated for OOo 2 or OOo 3. Some details have changed, but the general information is still relevant. I am updating the pages as I find time.

Books on OpenOffice.org

In addition to the books listed in the sidebar, others are given on this page and in the books section of the Support page at OpenOffice.org.

The first edition of the OpenOffice.org Draw Guide was published on 29 June.

PDFs of the full book and the individual chapters can be downloaded from this page.

All the files (in two formats: ODT and PDF) are also available here.

Printed edition coming soon.

I haven’t tried this extension to OpenOffice.org, because I don’t use Windows, but it sounds interesting (if not misused or abused as often happens with “readability” scores). Would like to hear from someone who has used it.

The Readability Report tool scores your document for readability, cohesion and information density. These scores provide the author with an indication of how well the intended audience will understand the text. The scores use a variety of computational linguistic techniques to determine the reading level of the text.

The first edition of the Calc Guide was published on 24 June.

PDFs of the full book and the individual chapters can be downloaded from this page.

All the files (in two formats: ODT and PDF) are also available here.

The printed edition is here.

A reader, who wants to use OpenOffice.org for page layout (and not Scribus or another program), asked me some questions about drop caps. I would like to be able to do these things myself, but I don’t know of a way it can be done without resorting to a workaround like manually putting the initial in a frame anchored to the paragraph and then fiddling with the paragraph’s settings.

Here are the questions. If anyone reading this can offer suggestions, please do!

- Drop caps near multiple paragraphs: My initials (drop caps) are 4 lines high. Now, the problem is, if there is a new paragraph starting in that 4 lines, the drop cap will only be as high as the first paragraph. The old book I mostly based my design on (printed in 1905) has the new paragraph continuing next to the initial, and the first-line indent used in paragraphs is even added. It looks like this:

XXXXXX first paragraph that is
XXXXXX only two lines.
XXXXXX ____Second paragraph with
XXXXXX its first line indented from
the initial with the same amount as
the normal indent.
____Third paragraph indented
normally under the initial.

But instead, Writer makes the Initial only two lines high, as high as the first paragraph is. I need a way to force it to make all initials the same height, even if there are not enough lines. I could do this with empty lines added but that would not be professional, and also I need the next paragraph start next to the initial.

- Drop caps first line indent: I need the very first line of the paragraph touch the initial while the other lines have a gap. Now Writer can only set a spacing that it has a gap in all lines. What I need is something like this:

XXXXXirst line is touching
X____ the initial while
XXX__ the rest of the lines
X____ are being separated
with a slight gap.

This is also a design element from my old book copy. On Writer if I try to play with indents and spacing, spacing adds gap to all lines while indent moves even the Initial itself, and all lines with it.

- Drop caps height: I would need the initials start not at the top of the first line, but stick a little bit out at the top, being a bit higher than the 4 lines.

Simon Phipps encourages you to use this logo to signify a geek-with-a-vote-and-a-clue. The source file and the bitmap are both available, or you can buy t-shirts and other items from CafePress.

I haven’t tried the AuthorSupportTool extension, but it sounds interesting. AST has its own template wizard for academic and scientific papers, a bibliographic and reference tool, an outliner, a progress tracker, and a backup tool.

I couldn’t find it in the official extensions repository, but it is available from SourceForge and installs just like any other extension.

EDIT: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/AST/

OpenOffice.org’s Project Renaissance is asking users to them them about any default settings that you change first thing when you install a new version of OOo, especially if they are in Impress, because the suggestions for default settings in the presentation application need to be made by the end of April. Please share what they are and why the change makes your life much easier. (Check the list on the wiki page to see if your favourite is already there and add your name if you wish.)

Better Default Settings, Anyone? (Blog entry)

Wiki page

Please don’t send your suggestions here. Send them to OpenOffice.org by using the wiki page. I am just the messenger.

The second edition of the OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide (updated for OOo V3.2) was published in March. PDFs of the full book and the individual chapters are on the Documentation wiki.

The printed edition of the book is available at low cost from Lulu.com.

This has nothing to do with OpenOffice.org directly, but it’s one of the most exciting open source projects I’ve heard about.

The OpenLuna Foundation seeks to return mankind to the lunar surface, first through robotic missions, followed by manned exploration, culminating in an eight person permanent outpost, and to do all of this in a way that it is accessible to everyone. Our research and technology will be open-source, we are privately funded, and one of our specific goals is to reach out to the community and educational systems to spread interest, enthusiasm, and involvement.

Yes, I joined, you bet. Makes me nostalgic for my NASA days, though of course that was government funding and got cut back. I’m an enthusiast for non-government projects and have been for many years.

The second edition of Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3 (updated for OOo3.2) has been published. PDFs of individual chapters are here. Editable files (ODT) are coming soon to that page, along with ZIP files containing all the chapter files in either PDF or ODT form. A printed book is also coming soon, along with downloadable PDF and ODT files of the full compiled book.