Getting Started With OpenOffice.org 2

Peter Kitson

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What is OpenOffice.org?

OpenOffice.org is a freely-available, full-featured office suite. This chapter describes:

• The components of OpenOffice.org.

• Some of the enhancements and new features in version 2.

• How OpenOffice.org compares to other office suites.

• How to get help.

• How OpenOffice.org is licensed.

• Answers to some common questions.

OpenOffice.org (OOo) is both a software product and a community of volunteers that produces and supports the software.

Everyone is free to redistribute OOo, thanks to its open source license (see "How is OpenOffice.org licensed?" on page 13).

If you are new to OOo, its open source development, and the community that produces and supports it, you should read this chapter.

OOo 2.0 is a major upgrade of an already feature-rich office suite. If you have used previous versions of OOo, please look over the section "New features in version 2" on page 7.

What does OpenOffice.org include?

The OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite includes the following components.

Writer (word processor)

Writer is a feature-rich tool for creating letters, books, reports, newsletters, brochures, and other documents. You can insert graphics and objects from other components into Writer documents. Writer can export files to HTML, XHTML, XML, Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF), and several versions of Microsoft Word files. It also connects to your email client.

Calc (spreadsheet)

Calc has all of the advanced analysis, charting and decision-making features expected from a high-end spreadsheet. It includes over 300 functions for financial, statistical and mathematical operations among others. The Scenario Manager provides "what if" analyses. Calc generates 2-D and 3-D charts, which can be integrated into other OOo documents. You can also open and work with Microsoft Excel workbooks and save them in Excel format. Calc can export spreadsheets to Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF).

Impress (presentation graphics)

Impress provides all the common multimedia presentation tools, such as special effects, animation, and drawing tools. It is integrated with the advanced graphics capabilities of OOo’s Draw and Math components. Slideshows can be further enhanced with Fontwork’s special effects text, as well as sound and video clips. Impress is compatible with Microsoft’s PowerPoint file format, and can also save your work in numerous graphics formats including Macromedia Flash (SWF).

Draw (vector graphics)

Draw is a vector drawing tool that can produce everything from simple diagrams or flowcharts to 3-D artwork. Its Smart Connectors feature allows you to define your own connection points. You can use Draw to create drawings for use in any of OOo’s other components, and you can create your own clipart and add it to the Gallery. Draw can import graphics from many common formats and save them in over 20 formats including PNG, HTML, PDF and Flash.

Base (database)

Base offers all the tools you need for day-to-day database work within a simple interface. It can create and edit forms, reports, queries, tables, views and relations, so managing a connected database is much the same as in other popular database applications. Base provides many new features, such as the ability to analyze and edit relationships from a diagram view. Base incorporates HSQLDB as its default relational database engine. It can also use dBASE, Microsoft’s Access, MySQL or Oracle, or any ODBC or JDBC compliant database. Base also provides support for a subset of ANSI-92 SQL.Base.

Math (formula editor)

Math is OOo’s formula or equation editor. You can use it to create complex equations that include symbols or characters not available in standard font sets. While it is most commonly used to create formulas in other documents, such as Writer and Impress files, Math can also work as a stand-alone tool. You can save formulas in the standard Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) format for inclusion in webpages and other documents not created by OOo.