Table of Contents
Abstract
OpenOffice.org is a powerful Linux office suite that offers tools for all types of office tasks, such as writing texts, working with spreadsheets, or creating graphics and presentations. With OpenOffice.org, use the same data across different computing platforms. You can also open and edit files in Microsoft Office formats then save them back to this format, if needed. This chapter only covers the basic skills needed to get started with OpenOffice.org.
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”. The discussion in this chapter is focused on Writer and Calc. The other modules are only explained briefly. A full description of each module is available in the online help, described in 3.2. “Getting Help”.
Table 3.1. The OpenOffice.org Application Modules
OpenOffice.org Writer | Powerful word processor application |
OpenOffice.org Calc | Spreadsheet application that includes a chart utility |
OpenOffice.org Draw | Drawing application for creating vector graphics |
OpenOffice.org Math | Application for generating mathematical formulas |
OpenOffice.org Impress | Application for creating presentations |
The Quickstarter is a convenient addition to the OpenOffice.org suite. After selecting from the main menu for the first time, you are asked whether the quickstart function of the program should be enabled. Doing so can be useful if you intend to use OpenOffice.org frequently and have sufficient RAM available.
When enabled, the Quickstarter icon appears in the desktop panel at the lower right edge of the screen. Right-clicking the icon displays a menu like the one shown in Figure 3.1. “The OpenOffice.org Quickstarter”, which gives access to a number of possibilities: directly start the individual OpenOffice.org application modules, quickly reopen the recently used files, or create a new document from a template. Customize the Quickstarter settings by selecting .
Once enabled, the Quickstarter is started automatically each time you log in to your desktop. To stop this from happening in the future, select
in the Quickstarter menu.