| openSUSE-Dokumentation Teil II. Büro und Zusammenarbeit / Chapter 3. The OpenOffice.org Office Suite | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Teil II. Büro und Zusammenarbeit | 3.2. Word Processing with Writer |  | |
| openSUSE-Dokumentation Teil II. Büro und Zusammenarbeit / Chapter 3. The OpenOffice.org Office Suite | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teil II. Büro und Zusammenarbeit | 3.2. Word Processing with Writer | | |
Contents
OpenOffice.org is a powerful open-source office suite that provides tools for all types of office tasks, such as writing texts, working with spreadsheets, or creating graphics and presentations. With OpenOffice.org, you can use the same data across different computing platforms. You can also open and edit files in other formats, including Microsoft Office, then save them back to this format, if needed. This chapter covers information about the Novell® edition of OpenOffice.org and some of the key features you should be aware of when getting started with the suite.
OpenOffice.org consists of several application modules (subprograms), which are designed to interact with each other. They are listed in Table 3.1, “The OpenOffice.org Application Modules”. A full description of each module is available in the online help, described in Section 3.8, “Finding Help and Information About OpenOffice.org”.
The appearance of the application varies depending on the desktop or window manager you use. Regardless of the appearance, the basic layout and functions are the same.
This section contains information that applies to all of the application modules in OpenOffice.org. Module-specific information can be found in the sections relating to each module.
You can use the standard edition of OpenOffice.org rather than the Novell edition. If you install the latest version of OpenOffice.org, all of your Novell Edition files remain compatible. However, the standard edition does not contain enhancements made in the Novell edition.
OpenOffice.org can work with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases in many other formats, including Microsoft Office. They can be seamlessly opened like other files and saved back to the original format. Because the Microsoft formats are proprietary and the specifications are not available to other applications, there are occasionally formatting issues. If you have problems with your documents, consider opening them in the original application and resaving in an open format such as RTF for text documents or CSV for spreadsheets.
![[Tip]](admon/tip.png) | Tip |
|---|---|
For good information about migrating from other office suites to OpenOffice.org, refer to the OpenOffice.org Migration Guide. | |
OpenOffice.org can read, edit, and save documents in a number of formats. It is not necessary to convert files from those formats to the OpenOffice.org format to use those files. However, if you want to convert the files, you can do so. To convert a number of documents, such as when first switching to OpenOffice.org, do the following:
Select ++.
Choose the file format from which to convert.
There are several StarOffice and Microsoft Office formats available.
Click .
Specify where OpenOffice.org should look for templates and documents to convert and in which directory the converted files should be placed.
![[Important]](admon/important.png) | Important |
|---|---|
Documents from a Windows partition are usually in a subdirectory
of | |
Make sure that all other settings are appropriate, then click .
Review the summary of the actions to perform, then start the conversion by clicking .
The amount of time needed for the conversion depends on the number of files and their complexity. For most documents, conversion does not take very long.
OpenOffice.org is available for a number of operating systems. This makes it an excellent tool when a group of users frequently need to share files and do not use the same system on their computers.
When sharing documents with others, you have several options.
If the recipient needs to be able to edit the file: Save the document in the format the other user needs. For example, to save as a Microsoft Word file, click +, then select the Microsoft Word file type for the version of Word the other user needs.
If the recipient only needs to read the document: Export the document to a PDF file with +. PDF files can be read on any platform using a viewer like Adobe Acrobat Reader.
If you want to share a document for editing: Use one of the standard document formats. The default formats comply with the OASIS standard XML format, making them compatible with a number of applications. TXT and RTF formats, although limited in formatting, might be a good option for text documents. CSV is useful for spreadsheets. OpenOffice.org might also offer your recipient's preferred format, especially Microsoft formats.
If you want to e-mail a document as a PDF: Click ++.Your default e-mail program opens with the file attached.
If you want to e-mail a document to a Microsoft Word user: Click ++. Your default e-mail program opens with the file attached.
Start the application in one of the following ways:
On the menu bar, click 
.
This opens Writer. To open a different module, click + from the newly opened Writer document, then choose the module you want to open.
From the Computer menu, click ++, then click the name of the OpenOffice.org module you want to start.
In a terminal window, enter ooffice. The OpenOffice.org window opens. Click +, then choose the module you want to open.
Select the module you want to open.
If any OpenOffice.org application is open, you can open any of the other applications by clicking ++.
To speed up the load time of OpenOffice.org by preloading the application at system startup:
The next time you restart your system, OpenOffice.org will preload. When you open an OpenOffice.org application module, it will open faster.
You can customize OpenOffice.org to best suit your needs and working style. Toolbars, menus, and keyboard shortcuts can all be reconfigured to help you more quickly access the features you use the most. You can also assign macros to application events if you want specific actions to occur when those events take place. For example, if you always work with a specific spreadsheet, you can create a macro that opens the spreadsheet and assign it to the Start Application event.
This section contains simple, generic instructions for customizing your environment. The changes you make are effective immediately, so you can see if the changes are what you wanted and go back and modify them if they weren’t. See the OpenOffice.org help files for detailed instructions.
Use the dialog to modify OpenOffice.org toolbars.
Click the arrow icon at the end of any toolbar.
Click .
Select the toolbar you want to customize.
Select the check boxes next to the commands you want to appear on the toolbar, and deselect the check boxes next to the commands you don’t want to appear.
Select whether to save your customized toolbar in the OpenOffice.org module you are using or in the document.
OpenOffice.org module
The customized toolbar is used whenever you open that module.
Document filename
The customized toolbar is used whenever you open that document.
Repeat to customize additional toolbars.
Click .
You can quickly choose the buttons that appear on a particular toolbar.
You can add or delete items from current menus, reorganize menus, and even create new menus.
You can reassign currently assigned keyboard shortcuts and assign new shortcuts to frequently used functions.
OpenOffice.org also provides ways to assign macros to events such as application startup or the saving of a document. The assigned macro runs automatically whenever the selected event occurs.
Global settings can be changed in any OpenOffice.org application by clicking + on the menu bar. This opens the window shown in the figure below. A tree structure is used to display categories of settings.
The following table lists the settings categories along with a brief description of each category:
Table 3.2. Global Setting Categories
| Important |
|---|---|
All settings listed in the table are applied globally. They are used as defaults for every new document you create. | |
Templates greatly enhance the use of OpenOffice.org by simplifying formatting tasks for a variety of different types of documents. OpenOffice.org comes with a few templates, and you can find additional templates on the Internet. You can also create your own. Creating templates is beyond the scope of this guide, but detailed instructions are found in the OpenOffice.org help system and in other documents and tutorials available online.
In addition to templates, you can find other extras and add-ins online. The following table lists a few of the prominent places where you can find templates and other extras. (Because Web sites often close or their content changes, the information in the following table might not be current when you read it.)
Table 3.3. Where to Find OpenOffice.org Templates and Extras
For more information about templates, see Section 3.2.4, “Using Templates to Format Documents” and Section 3.3.2, “Using Templates in Calc”.
