Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 11 - OPENOFFICE, SUSE LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 11 OPENOFFICE.org Quick Start Manual

OpenOfce.org is a powerful open-source ofce suite that provides tools for all types of ofce tasks such as
writing texts, working with spreadsheets, creating graphics and presentations, or designing scientic formulas.
With OpenOfce.org, you can use the same data across different computing platforms. You can also open and
edit les in other formats, including Microsoft Ofce, then save them back to this format. The OpenOfce.org
Novell Edition contains improved functionality and additional features not available with the standard version.

OpenOfce.org Novell Edition

SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop includes the OpenOf­ce.org Novell Edition. This version includes several special
features that are not yet included in the standard edition:

Excel VBA Macro Interoperability:

The OpenOfce.org Novell Edition makes the migration
of many macros from Microsoft Excel easier.

Data Pilots

Data Pilots are interoperable with Microsoft Ofce Pivot­Tables*. The OpenOfce.org Novell Edition substantially
improves the Data Pilot feature, making it possible to
edit pilots after creation.

Special Fonts:

Licensed fonts from Agfa* Monotype*, which are metri­cally identical and visually compatible with some of the
key Microsoft fonts.

EMF+ Support:

The ability to render EMF+ formatted graphics.

SVG Support:

The ability to import scalable vector graphics.

GroupWise® Integration:

The OpenOfce.org Novell Edition includes improved
integration with ODMA (Open Document Management
Architecture) services, for example for GroupWise.

You can also use the OpenOfce.org standard version, rather
than the The Novell Edition. If you install the latest version
of OpenOfce.org, all of your Novell Edition les remain
compatible. However, the standard edition does not contain
the enhancements made in the Novell Edition.

Compatibility

OpenOfce.org can work with documents, spreadsheets,
presentations, and databases in many other formats, includ­ing Microsoft Ofce. They can be seamlessly opened like
other les and saved back to the original format. Though
some work has already been invested in interoperability,
occasionally there are still formatting issues. If you have
problems with your documents, consider opening them in
the original application and resaving them in an open format
such as RTF for text documents. In case of migration prob­lems with spreadsheets however, it is advisable to resave
them as Excel les and use this as intermediate format (with
CSV format you would lose all cell formatting and CVS
sometimes leads to incorrect cell type detection for
spreadsheets).

OpenOfce.org Modules

OpenOfce.org consists of several application modules
(subprograms), which are designed to interact with each
other. All modules feature the same graphical user interface
and similar functionality.

OpenOfce.org Quick Start

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11

NOVELL® QUICK START CARD

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Table 1. The OpenOfce.org Modules

UsageModule

Text document moduleWriter

Spreadsheet moduleCalc

Presentation moduleImpress

Database moduleBase

Vector graphics moduleDraw

Mathematical equation moduleMath

Starting OpenOfce.org

To start the OpenOfce.org suite, press Alt + F2, type
ooffice and press Enter. In the Welcome dialog, select
the module you want to open. If an OpenOfce.org appli­cation is open, you can start any of the other applications
by clicking File → New → Name of Application.

Saving OpenOfce.org Files

1. To save a new le, select File → Save or Save as from
the Menu Bar or use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + S.

2. Select the directory where you want to save the le.

3. Enter the lename in the Location box.

4. From the Filter box, select the le type in which you
want to save the le.

In all modules you can save your documents as native
OpenOfce.org les, OpenOfce.org templates, Microsoft
les and StarOfce les.

Navigator and Navigation Shortcuts

The Navigator tool displays information about the contents
of a document. It also lets you quickly jump to different
elements. For example, you can use the Navigator to get a
quick overview of all images included in the document. To
open the Navigator, click Edit → Navigator or with F5. The
elements listed in the Navigator vary according to the
document loaded in Writer.

You can also navigate your les with the following shortcuts:

Table 2. Navigation Shortcuts

ShortcutAction

Ctrl + Del or Ctrl + <—Delete Word

Ctrl + EndEnd of Document

EndEnd of Line

Ctrl + ASelect All

HomeStart of Line

Ctrl + HomeTop of Document

Ctrl + ←Word Left

Ctrl + →Word Right

Using and Creating Templates

OpenOfce.org comes with a set of predened templates,
and you can nd additional templates on the Internet. If
you want to create your own templates, you need to deter­mine what you want the document to look like and create
the styles you need in that template.

For text document, spreadsheets, presentations, and draw­ings, you can easily create a template from an existing
document as follows:

1. Start OpenOfce.org and open or create a document
that contains the styles that you want to use as a tem­plate.

2. Click File → Templates → Save.

3. Specify a name for the template.

4. In the Categories box, click the category where you
want to place the template.

5. Click OK.

OpenOfce.org Writer

OpenOfce.org Writer is a full-featured word processor
with page and text-formatting capabilities. Its interface is
similar to interfaces for other major word processors, and
it includes some features that are usually found only in ex­pensive desktop publishing applications. Many of the
OpenOfce.org Writer features apply also to other
OpenOfce.org modules.

What is New in Writer

Below is a list of new features:

Displaying Multiple Pages in Editing Mode

OpenOfce.org now includes a set of icons at the right
corner of the status bar which allow you to display mul­tiple pages in the editing mode. With the slide bar, zoom
seamlessly in and out of the document. When zooming
out, OpenOfce.org displays more pages of your docu­ment.

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Display and Usability of Notes

When editing or reviewing a document, users can add
notes to the text. In contrast to earlier versions of
OpenOfce.org where notes were only shown as small
rectangles within the text, the notes are now displayed
on the side of the document. Notes from different users
are displayed in different colors and also show editing
date and time.

The OpenOfce.org Novell Edition includes additional fea­tures available also in Writer, like enhanced fonts, support
of certain le formats and GroupWise integration.

Creating a New Document

There are two ways to create a new document:

To create a completely new document, click File → New →
Text Document.

To use a standard format and predened elements for your
own documents, try a wizard (a small utility that lets you
make some basic initial decisions and then produces a
ready-made document from a template). For example, to
create a business letter, click File → Wizards → Letter. With
the wizard's dialogs, you can create a basic document that
uses a standard format.

Enter text in the document window as desired. Use the
Formatting toolbar or the Format menu to adjust the ap­pearance of the document. Use the File menu or the rele­vant buttons in the toolbar to print and save your docu­ment. With the options under Insert, add extra items to
your document, such as a table, picture, or chart.

Customizing OpenOfce.org

With OpenOfce.org you can customize the default settings
with the Format menu.

Below is a list of the most popular options available in most
modules:

Customizing Character Settings

To set all character elements at the same time, select
Format → Character.

Customizing Paragraph Settings

To format paragraphs, select Format → Paragraph and
select the appropriate tabs for making changes.

Customizing Alignment

To modify the alignment, select Format → Paragraph
and choose the alignment you want.

Inserting Headers and Footers

If you want to add headers and footers, click Insert and
select either Header or Footer.

Inserting Special Characters

If you want to insert special characters, select Insert →
Special Character.

Inserting Footnotes

If you want to insert footnotes, click Insert and select
Footnote.

Inserting Columns

If you want to insert columns, click Insert and select
Columns.

Inserting Indexes and Table of Contents

If you want to insert indexes or a table of contents, click
Insert and select Indexes and Tables.

The Object Toolbar offers additional text formatting op­tions.

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Using Master Documents

If you are working with a very large document (such as a
book), you might nd it easier to manage the book with a
master document, rather than keeping the book in a single
le. A master document enables you to quickly apply for­matting changes to a large document or to jump to each
subdocument for editing.

A master document is a Writer document that serves as a
container for multiple Writer les. You can maintain chap­ters or other subdocuments as individual les collected in
the master document. Master documents are also useful if
multiple people are working on a document. You can sepa­rate each person’s relevant part of the document into sub­documents, allowing multiple writers to work on their sub­documents at the same time without fear of overwriting
each other’s work.

1. Click New → Master Document.

or

Open an existing document and click File → Send →
Create Master Document.

2. Insert subdocuments.

3. Click File Save.

The OpenOfce.org help les contain more complete infor­mation about working with master documents. Look for
the topic entitled Using Master Documents and Subdocu-
ments.

Using Writer as HTML Editor

In addition to being a full-featured word processor, Writer
also functions as an HTML editor. Writer includes HTML
tags that can be applied as you would any other style in a

Writer document. You can view the document as it will ap­pear online, or you can directly edit the HTML code.

1. Click File → New → HTML Document.

2. Press F11 to open the Styles and Formatting window.

3. Click the arrow at the bottom of the Styles and Format-
ting window.

4. Select HTML Styles.

5. Create your HTML document, using the styles to tag
your text.

6. Click File → Save As.

7. Select the location where you want to save your le,
name the le, and select HTML Document (.html) from
the Filter list.

8. Click OK.

If you prefer to edit HTML code directly, or if you want to
see the HTML code created when you edited the HTML le
as a Writer document, click View → HTML Source. In HTML
Source mode, the Formatting and Styles list is not available.
The rst time you switch to HTML Source mode, you are
prompted to save the le as HTML, if you have not already
done so.

Tables

You can include tabular data in the Writer, Impress and
Draw module. Insert basic tables directly into your docu­ment either with the following menus items or by using the
toolbar:

• Insert → Table,

• Table → Insert → Table,

• or use the Table icon.

To enter data, select a cell with your mouse pointer and
begin typing. To move around cells, use the arrow keys. →|
moves to the next cell, skipping over the contents of the
cell and Shift + →| moves backwards.

You can use Table menu or the Table toolbar to modify the
table.

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OpenOfce.org Calc

Calc is the OpenOfce.org spreadsheet and data-plotting
module. Spreadsheets consist of a number of sheets, con­taining cells which can be lled with elements like text,
numbers, or formulas. A formula can manipulate data from
other cells to generate a value for the cell into which it is
inserted. Calc also allows you to dene ranges, lter and
sort the data, or create charts from the data to present it
graphically. By using DataPilots, you can combine, analyze
or compare larger amounts of data.

As with the entire OpenOfce.org suite, Calc can be used
across a variety of platforms. It provides a number of ex­change formats (including export to PDF documents), and
can also read and save les in Microsoft Excel's format.

What is New in Calc

Below is a list of new features for Calc:

Spreadsheet Collaboration

It is now possible to share a spreadsheet with other users.
To do so, click Tools → Share Document. In the dialog
that appears, activate the sharing mode and save the
document. This creates a lock le .~sharing
.filename.ods# in the same directory to store the
list of users who are currently accessing the document.
When a different user, tux, opens the le, he or she is
informed of the sharing mode and can make the changes
to the le. User may now save changes. If the document
has been modied by another user in the meantime, an
alert appears. Upon saving the document, the changes
of both users will be merged.

NOTE: Access Permissions

Note that all writers working on the shared
document need writing permission for both the
shared le and the lock le.

Higher Number of Columns Per Calc Sheet

Instead of only 256 columns per spreadsheet, OpenOf­ce.org can now handle 1024 columns per spreadsheet.

The OpenOfce.org Novell Edition includes the following
additional features available in Calc:

Variable Formula Syntax Support (Calc A1, Excel A1, and
Excel R1C1)

Accessible from the Options dialog: Click Tools → Op-

tions → OpenOfce.org Calc → Calculate and select the
respective Formula Syntax.

Support of External Range Names

Allows users to access named ranges in external docu­ments, as in Microsoft Excel. For example,

SUM('file:///external.ods'#NamedRange)

Support for Encrypted Excel Export

Allows you to save to an *.xls le with password and
encrypt its content. Click File → Save As ... and select the
Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP (.xls) format. Set the check­box Save with password, save and type your password.

Protecting Sheets

Allows you to protect sheets and the contents of locked
cells with a password. Click Tools → Protect Document
→ > Sheet to access the available options.

Changing Source Data Ranges of DataPilots

Allows you to change the source data range of a DataPi­lot after the table has been created.

Toggling Grid Lines Per Sheet

Allows you to hide or show the grid lines individually for
each sheet. The grid line settings are saved with the
document. Access the function from the right end of the
toolbar.

Argument Separators in Formula Expressions

The argument separators in formula expression are de­pendent on locales. You can use a comma instead of a
semicolon as a separator for expressions. For example,
you can write =SUM(A1,A2,A3) instead =SUM(A1;
A2;A3).

Creating a New Document

Start OpenOfce.org and select File → New → Spreadsheet
to create a new spreadsheet. Access the individual sheets
by clicking the respective tabs at the bottom of the window.

Enter data in the cells as desired. To adjust appearance, ei­ther use the Formatting toolbar or the Format menu—or
dene styles. Use the File menu or the relevant buttons in
the toolbar to print and save your document.

Customizing OpenOfce.org Calc

Calc comes with a few built-in cell and page styles to im­prove the appearance of your spreadsheets and reports.
Although these built-in styles are adequate for many uses,
you will probably nd it useful to create styles for your own
frequently-used formatting preferences.

Creating a Style

1. Click Format → Styles and Formatting.

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2. In the Styles and Formatting window, click either the
Cell Styles or the Page Styles icon.

3. Right-click in the Styles and Formatting window, then
click New.

4. Specify a name for your style and use the various tabs
to set the desired formatting options.

5. Click OK.

Modifying a Style

1. Click Format → Styles and Formatting.

2. In the Formatting and Styles window, click either the
Cell Styles or the Page Styles icon.

3. Right-click the name of the style you want to change,
then click Modify.

4. Change the desired formatting options.

5. Click OK.

Other OpenOfce.org Modules

Besides OpenOfce.org Writer and OpenOfce.org Calc,
OpenOfce.org also includes the modules Impress, Base,
Draw, and Math. With these you can create presentations,
design databases, draw up graphics and diagrams and create
mathematical formulas.

Using Presentations with Impress

Use OpenOfce.org Impress to create presentations for
screen display or printing, such as slide shows or transparen­cies. If you have used other presentation software, you can
move comfortably to Impress, which works very similarly
to other presentation software.

Impress can open and save Microsoft Powerpoint presenta­tions, which means you can exchange presentations with
Powerpoint users, as long as you save your presentations
in Powerpoint format.

The OpenOfce.org Novell Edition allows you to use 3D
transitions for your slides. Access the available transitions
by selecting Slide Show → Transitions.

You can either create a brand new presentation (without
any preformatted slides) or use an existing template or
presentation for your new document. Impress uses styles
and templates the same way other OpenOfce.org modules
do. A wizard leads you through the options available for
creating new presentations.

Using Databases with Base

OpenOfce.org includes a database module (Base). Use
Base to design a database to store many different kinds of
information, from a simple address book or recipe le to
a sophisticated document management system.

Tables, forms, queries, and reports can be created manually
or using convenient wizards. For example, the Table Wizard
contains a number of common elds for business and per­sonal use. A wizard guides you through the steps to create
a new database.

OpenOfce.org Base comes with several predened
database elds to help you create a database. A wizard
guides you through the steps to create a new database. The
following steps are specic to creating an address book
using predened elds, but it should be easy to use the
predened elds for any of the built-in database options.
The process for creating a database can be broken into
several subprocesses:

Creating a Database

1. Click File → New → Database.

2. Select Create a new database Next.

3. Click Yes, register the database for me to make your
database information available to other OpenOfce.org
modules, select both check boxes in the bottom half
of the dialog, then click Finish.

4. Browse to the directory where you want to save the
database, specify a name for the database, then click

OK.

Setting Up the Database Table

1. In the Table Wizard, click Personal.

2. The Sample tables list changes to show the predened
tables for personal use. If you had clicked Business, the
list would contain predened business tables.

In the Sample tables list, click Addresses. The available
elds for the predened address book appear in the
Available elds menu.

3. In the Available elds menu, click the elds you want
to use in your address book.

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You can select one item at a time, or you can shift-click
multiple items to select them.

4. Click the single arrow icon to move the selected items
to the Selected elds menu.

To move all available elds to the Selected elds menu,
click the double right- arrow.

5. Use the arrow keys to adjust the order of the selected
elds.

The elds appear in the table and forms in the order
in which they are listed.

Creating Graphics with Draw

Use OpenOfce.org Draw to create graphics and diagrams.
You can save your drawings in today’s most common for­mats and import them into any application that lets you
import graphics, including the other OpenOfce.org mod­ules. You can also create Flash versions of your drawings.

The OpenOfce.org Novell Edition allows you to import
Scalable Vector Graphics (*.svg) and WordPerfect Graphics
(*.wpg). Select File → Open and use the Filter drop-down
list to view which le formats can be opened.

Creating a Graphic

1.

Click Alt + F2 and enter oodraw to open OpenOf­ce.org Draw.

2. Use the toolbar at the bottom of the window to create
a graphic.

3. Save the graphic.

To embed an existing Draw graphic into an OpenOfce.org
document, select Insert → Object → OLE Object. Select
Create from le and click Search to navigate to the Draw
le to insert. If you insert a le as OLE object, you can easily
edit the object later by double-clicking it.

Opening Draw From Other OpenOfce.org Modules

One particularly useful feature of Draw is the ability to open
it from other OpenOfce.org modules so you can create a
drawing that is automatically imported into your document.

1. From an OpenOfce.org module (for example, from
Writer), click Insert → Object → OLE Object →
OpenOfce.org 3.x Drawing → OK. This opens Draw.

2. Create your drawing.

3. Click in your document, outside the Draw frame.

The drawing is automatically inserted into your docu­ment.

Creating Mathematical Formulas with Math

It is usually difcult to include complex mathematical for­mulas in your documents. The OpenOfce.org Math equa­tion editor lets you create formulas using operators, func­tions, and formatting assistants. You can then save those
formulas as objects that can be imported into other docu­ments. Math functions can be inserted into other OpenOf­ce.org documents like any other graphic object.

Using Math, you can enter your equation in three different
ways:

• Type markup in the equation editor,

• Right-click on the equation editor and select the symbol

from the context menu,

or

• Select a symbol from the Selection toolbox.

NOTE

Math is not a calculator. The functions it creates
are graphical objects. Even if they are imported into
Calc, these functions cannot be evaluated.

For More Information

OpenOfce.org contains extensive online help. In addition,
a large community of users and developers support it. For
more details, see the following links:

http://openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3
.0

A list of all new features available with OpenOfce.org.

http://support.openoffice.org/index.html

Ofcial OpenOfce.org support page, provides manuals
and other documentation

http://www.taming-openoffice-org.com/

Taming OpenOfce.org: Books, news, tips and tricks.

http://documentation.OpenOffice.org/HOW_TO/
index.html

Detailed HowTo's for various OpenOfce.org tasks, in­cluding how to create and use templates.

Legal Notice

All content is copyright © 2006- 2009 Novell, Inc.

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This manual is protected under Novell intellectual property
rights. By reproducing, duplicating or distributing this
manual you explicitly agree to conform to the terms and
conditions of this license agreement.

This manual may be freely reproduced, duplicated and dis­tributed either as such or as part of a bundled package in
electronic and/or printed format, provided however that
the following conditions are fullled:

That this copyright notice and the names of authors and
contributors appear clearly and distinctively on all repro­duced, duplicated and distributed copies. That this manual,
specically for the printed format, is reproduced and/or
distributed for noncommercial use only. The express autho-

rization of Novell, Inc must be obtained prior to any other
use of any manual or part thereof.

For Novell trademarks, see the Novell Trademark and Ser­vice Mark list http://www.novell.com/company/
legal/trademarks/tmlist.html. Linux* is a regis­tered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third party
trademarks are the property of their respective owners. A
trademark symbol (®, ™ etc.) denotes a Novell trademark;
an asterisk (*) denotes a third party trademark.

All information found in this book has been compiled with
utmost attention to detail. However, this does not guarantee
complete accuracy. Neither Novell, Inc., SUSE LINUX Prod­ucts GmbH, the authors, nor the translators shall be held
liable for possible errors or the consequences thereof.

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