openoffice 3.1: the free alternative to office. introduction s. jeff cold, assoc. professor of...
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Introduction
S. Jeff Cold, Assoc. Professor of Information Technology (IT) at Utah Valley University
24 years of IT experienceLoves peach pie, real estate,
dogs, Aikido
FOSSFree and open source software
(FOSS):Software liberally licensed giving you the
right to:StudyChangeImprove the design
through the availability of its source code
Viva the Bazaar!In his famous collection of essays
called The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric S. Raymond described the creation of FOSS like a bazaar: many people looking at and helping to create an open program.
He said conventional commercial software is created methodically like building a cathedral that is proprietary.
http://www.conservapedia.com/Famous_Cathedrals
http://www.china-hongkong-travelguide.com/stanley-market.html
20 Years in the Making
OpenOffice 3Designed to be a single piece of
softwareAnyone can report bugs or request new
featuresOver 750 contributors and 400,000
people internationally
http://why.openoffice.org/why_foss.html
Can You Believe It?Works on:
Windows (JRE 32 bit)Linux (32/64 bit)Mac OS (Intel or PPC)
*Due to the limited resources of the OpenOffice.org and Sun Microsystem, Inc., not every language is available for every computing platform.
http://download.openoffice.org/other.html#tested-full
What about the License?
Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) v3 by the Free Software Foundation
You are free to use OpenOffice for:CommerceEducationGovernment…whateverhttp://www.openoffice.org/license.html
Si se puede! Yes we can!
Yes, Writer will open and save to .doc or .docx formats. It will export to .pdf format…and it saves to the OpenDoc format. (More on that later.)
http://www.justseeds.org/josh_macphee/04sisepuede.html
What I am & am not
I am a FOSS advocate.I am not a Microsoft Office or
OpenOffice expert. OpenOffice is not competing with
Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is free and that makes a big difference in many parts of our world.
Start Your Engines!
Start OpenOffice Writer.Tools-Options-under OpenOffice.org-
General-checkbox: Tips + Extended Tips + Help Agent, then OK
Get Helphttp://blogit.realwire.com/?ReleaseID=8148
Press F1 or select the Life Preserver icon for help.
Similar to WordJust like you expect:
Enter textSelect textMove textCut, paste, copy textShow toolbars: View-Toolbars and
move them around
Templates
File-New-Templates and DocumentsGet more templates from:http://templates.services.openoffice.org/
Install to: ooo-user-dir/user/template/
StylesAssign and organize styles through
the Styles window. Click the Styles button to show the Styles window.
Navigator
Writer has a button that opens the Navigator window allowing you navigate major components of the document.
Simple Formatting
Bold, italics and underline work as you expect
Bullets and numbering are the same
I like the increase/decrease indent buttons
Line spacing: Format-Paragraph
Academic WritingInsert-Header, Footer,
Footnote/Endnote, Page breaks
Notice the free Zotero plug-in? Zotero is a Firefox add-in that automatically formats references.
http://www.zotero.org
Hammertime: small demonstration.
/
Shift Gears!
Start OpenOffice Calc.Worksheets are saved in a
Workbook. Cells and labels work just like you expect.
http://distributors.fhblack.com/services/FinancialReporting.aspx
Cell Addresses
Relative and absolute cell addresses work the same as Excel.
Automatically Word wrap text labels: Format-Cells-Alignment-Properties-Wrap text automatically checkbox
Formulas
Same as Excel: use = to start a formula
Predefined formulas are available via the keyChoose the formula then Next. You may
need to enter a cell range as the arguments for the formula.
Currency
View-Toolbars-Formatting Currency button applies a currency
format. The decimal place buttons let you
adjust the decimals.
Navigator
Like Writer, Calc has a button that opens the Navigator window allowing you navigate major components of the worksheet.
Weird Auto-Format To auto-format a cell range, it must be at
least 3x3 and not have values in the cells, else the Format-AutoFormat selection will be grayed-out.
Plenty of Charts
The Chart button automatically creates a chart of the selected range and opens the Chart wizard.
Shift Gears!
Open OpenOffice Impress. The Presentation wizard offers you a
chance to start from scratch, use a template, or open an existing presentation.
http://www.zeus-cbs.com/service/business-presentation.html
Tasks Window
The tasks window on the right opens with a choice of Layouts.
Other windows are temporarily collapsed that provide templates, animations, etc.
Easy to Use Lists
List items are paragraphs. Use the List format button to choose from list styles.
Notice the list item position buttons that easily move items up, down, left, and right.
Add a Chart
The same Chart button inserts a chart on the slide.
Right-click the chart to change the data table values, chart type, axis, etc.
Adding Animation
From the Tasks window, open the Animation window.Select a slide element and then under
Modify Effect, select the Add button.Choose the animation. Notice all the
effects you choose are on the list.Select Play to preview.
http://www.techshout.com/internet/2006/04/cartoon-networks-popular-toon-stars-now-available-on-tata-indicom-broadband
Transitions
To add transitions between slides, open the Slide Transition window in the Tasks Window.Select the slides you want.Select the transition you like.Choose Play to preview the transitions
before you commit.
Drawing
Do you see the Drawing toolbar? If not: View-Toolbars-Drawing.
You can put in arrows, callouts, connectors, 3-D objects, you name it.
Yes We Can!
We can save as:Open Document Format (ODF)
presentation (.odp)PowerPoint 97/2000/XP presentation
(.ppt)PowerPoint 2007 XML presentation
(.pptx) and even…Export to a PDF file
Shift Gears!
Start OpenOffice Base. The Database wizard offers you a chance
to create a new database, open an existing database, or connect to a database using different connector technologies.
http://greencanada.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/green-party-of-canada-voter-id-database/
Very Similar
Base works using familiarTablesQueriesFormsReports
Just like Access http://dotnet.org.za/willy/archive/2008/10/09/rdbms-101-relational-set-operators.aspx
When in Doubt, Start With a Wizard
You can create a table from scratch using the Design view or
Use the Wizard to walk you through
Design View
Field types available in Design View:TextMemoNumberDate/TimeYes/No…and 16 other types too
No We Can’t
While Base does work with SQLIt can only save in OpenDoc
database format (.odb), not in Access format
It can export the data using just about any delimiter you like though: , [tab] !
OpenDoc Format
Created in 2006 by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)
Approved as a standard by the International Standard Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
Why?
The format in which critical information is stored, used, and shared is an important part of any organization’s information asset.
Do you rely on a single vendor’s technology to use your own information?
How?
ODF uses an Extensible Markup Language (XML) that stores data in an open format.
It doesn’t matter which application you use ten years from now.
Data stored in XML format will be available tomorrow and the day after that.
Space Savings
ODF documents are up to 50% smaller than Microsoft Office 1997-2003 documents.
Smaller = cost savings
(Pat, you might have to throw that one back!)
ODF and Office
Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 offers limited ODF comptability.
Instead, use the free Sun ODF plug-in for Office 2007.Available from:http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/
For More Information
http://www.openoffice.org/ http://catb.org/~esr/writings/
homesteading/cathedral-bazaar/ http://www.odfalliance.org/resources/
AboutODF.2.pdf http://www.odfalliance.org/resources/
whyODF.pdf