As you can see from the rev. date, this discussion is pretty old. It relates to OpenOffice 1.0 series. The 2.0 series has some important changes and improvements, though the basics are the same. Among other things, the default file storing format has changed and a "native" database system has been added.

1. OpenOffice is a free version of Sun's StarOffice 6.0. It was disappointing that Sun pulled its StarOffice 5.2, because I liked the calendar. Oh, well.
   
   
2. Installing. You should log to root and install run the main install binary that you down load with the parameter "/net." Okay, I forgot the name of the binary and only just now thought to add this information. The procedure is described in the opening licensing files, so you can read that information, then quit and start setup all over again from a command line, using the /net parameter. You then log in as the various users who wish to run OpenOffice (including as root) and run the "setup" program that is installed into the OpenOffice directory you create. This will create a set of configuration files/work directories, etc. in your home directory.
   
   
3. Possible glitch. Okay, it is installed fine, but where is it? Well, the startup links ended up in the wrong place in my install. You can go to your /home/user/install directory and run "soffice," but this will invoke only the wordprocessor. I found an OpenOffice_1.0.destop (menu links) in /home/user/.kde2/share/applnk. By copying these to the menu system, I got a set of menu links to OpenOffice features. Note I have said, "copying." It appears that the menu links are refreshed from a default set somewhere else when an install program modifies the menu, so you may have to do this again. (Sorry I don't know the correct location to move the links to make the change "permanent.") Anyway, copy them to /home/user/.kde/share/applnk-mdk and you will have links in the menu. (This may apply only to the Mandrake 8.2 Linux install.) I notice that they also seem to be installed in /home/user/.kde/share/applink -- which in the Mandrake install is not useful.
   
   
4. Printing. OpenOffice is in some manner "CUPS aware" because I did not have to set it up to print to my CUPS printer. However, it may be useful to have OpenOffice call up the CUPS/kprinter dialogue. For instance, one person was trying to send a fax and did not see a fax option in the OpenOffice print dialogue. You can use the Printer Administrator to change "lpr" to "kprinter stdin". Actually also works with just "kprinter," but someone told me the better command includes the "stdin" parameter. This works in StarOffice 5.2, but you have to make the change manually in the print configuration file, which is in one of the subdirectories of the StarOffice installation. You change the redirect of the "default" printer from "lpr" to "kprinter stdin."
   
   
The result will be that when you print, you will see OpenOffice printer dialogue and then when you print to "generic printer" you will see the kprinter/CUPS dialogue, where you will be able to make appropriate printereselections. CUPS will allow you to print to network printers as well as to local ones.

USB issue. This isn't limited to OpenOffice, but I remembered it at this moment and wanted to write it down. Whenever I print for the first time after logging into Linux, nothing happens. I have to unplug my USB cable and plug it back in. Apparently my linux is not recognizing the USB hub until it gets a new signal from it. This would be inconvenient on a desktop computer but is no big deal on my laptop. (update 3/31/06: Wow, this doesn't happen any more, it was so long ago I don't remember the problem ...)


5. Line Numbering/Pleading Paper. One of my immediate tasks when trying out a new word processor is that I have to get the thing to print my letter head and numbered "pleading paper." Some tricks I have used in other programs: Wordperfect -- I sent a macro to my hp printer and called the macro. Word -- I put a frame in the header and added the numbering down the lefthand column. This would not work in OpenOffice because the program will not allow a "header" to print outside of the header margins. (Update 3/31/06: 2.0 is more "Word compatible" and it imported my Word line numbering correctly. Variables still do not import correctly and have to be re-done; they import as static text. Another incompatibility is that in Word I used a "page 0" to set up a set of variable data for the document and fill it in only once. OpenOffice apparently does not allow page numbering to begin at 0. So, I moved the variables page to the end of the document, that works okay and is compatible with both Word and OpenOffice, though you have to page down to the end of the document to access the variables.)
   
   OpenOffice -- you can add a "background," but the problem is that the background will not print outside the designated text margins. This was a difficult dilemma. Maybe others have a better solution, but here is what I did: (1) I printed a "sheet" of blank pleading paper from Word to Paperport in my Windows install. (The reason for this is that it avoids the inaccuracies of an actual scanner. Paperport has a "printer" simulation that allows you to print straight from the word processor to a graphics file.)
   
   Next, I used Paperport to trim the image from a full-size 8 1/2" x 11" page, leaving it the full width but cutting it off at the top and bottom text margins. I saved it as a .jpg file.
   
   Next, I booted into Linux, called up OpenOffice and put this jpg file in as the background. I adjusted set the left and right margins for "zero" and adjusted the top and bottom margins until double-spaced text would "break" following line 28. I created a special paragraph that was "indented" from the "zero" margins to give me the true text margins. I adjusted the line spacing using a "fixed" line spacing (I ended up with .32") until it would match my background line numbering.
   
   Not elegant and surely not as good as if the program would provide a line numbering option of "every other line of text." OpenOffice actually does allow such a line numbering option, but I found that it also numbers the header lines and the footer lines when you turn it on. Very annoying.
   
   
6. Other backgrounds. OpenOffice will allow you to place a full-page "watermark" file in a frame, if you were doing, say, a first page of a letterhead. Unfortunately, I could not find a way to tell such a watermark to repeat on every page. Maybe someone else can figure this out and let me know.
   
   
7. Inserting variables.  This works differently from putting in a "bookmark" and repeating the data elsewhere in MS Windows.  Follow these steps:

1. insert>fields>other>variables>user field.

2. Name the new "user field" with the variable name you want, eg., "client_name". (Don't insert it, though.)

3. Move up to "input field".  You will now see "client_name" in the list of selections.  Select it.

4. You will see a dialogue box where you can type the information you want for client_name, such as "Mr. Jones."  Type it, close the box and insert the input field.

5. Go to where you want the next instance of "Mr. Jones."  Insert the "client_name" user field per the menu steps 1 & 2 listed above.  This time, insert the user field.

6. Do this wherever you want "Mr. Jones" to appear.

7. You can change "Mr. Jones" any time you wish by going to the first entry and clicking on it.  You will again get the "input dialogue" and can enter new text.
   

8. Things are hiding. I first thought that OpenOffice was missing a lot of StarOffice 5.2 features I like. Especially, for instance, the database interface. Well, it is actually there, just hard to find. And, it has some quick resources, such as building a "form" for your data. You can put your datatable above a form, find your entry and then view it in the convenient context of a full page form. I have a lot of dbase/foxbase files I have accummulated over the years and it is great to have a relatively quick and easy way to add to / query / sort these files. They are great for keeping track of ... well ... STUFF, you know ...
   
   In fact, having spent so much time over the years writing dbase/foxbase applications to manage my data, I have a hard time getting used to the fact that it is so easy to access using basic SQL query operations! (Gee, I wonder if there is an easy way to use this for my billing program ...)
   
   
9. Links and mimetypes.  This may be an issue only for Mandrake 8.2, I don't know.  OpenOffice does not properly install the applinks and the mimetypes so you will have a problem starting OpenOffice.  You can find them in one of the OpenOffice subdirectories and copy them to the "applinks" and "mimelinks" subdirectories of your home directory.  /home/user/.kde/share/applnk-mdk/ is where to put them.  (Make sure Konqueror is set to view hidden files.)  Don't move them because they may disappear and you will need to do this again.  The OpenOffice links will also be found in /home/user.kde/share/applnk and in /home/user.kde2/share/applnk-mdk.  that is to say, everywhere but where you need them.
   
   
10. Troubling stuff I haven't figured out.  Formatting codes are not as stable in OpenOffice as they are in MS Word.  I have had a particular difficulty with "boldface" type.  It seems to mysteriously switch around with the text that is not supposed to be boldface, or just radomnly change in the wrong place.  Usually, I can fix it.
    
    I can't figure out how to properly insert a "manual break" in justified text.  The last line of the first page will not justify.  In MS Word, I can delete the "paragraph symbol" and solve the problem, but this does not work in OpenOffice.
    
    Another issue:  In MS Word I copy paragraph formatting by copying the "paragraph symbol" and inserting at the end of the paragraph I want to format.  This does not seem to work in OpenOffice.
    
    
    
    
11. 
    
12. 
    
    

Back