Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop

StarCalc Basics

While StarCalc offers about 90 percent compatibility with MS Excel’s functionality and file format, you are likely at some point to have trouble locating a familiar old command or discover a problem importing an MS Excel file.

Advanced spreadsheet users in particular are hampered by StarCalc’s inability to run MS Office-originated Visual Basic macros. (There are work-arounds that we’ll discuss at the end of the chapter.) More than the other modules of StarOffice, StarCalc calls for adjustments from MS Office users.

Opening Files

Select File → Open from the Main menu, choose the desired file in the dialog window, and click the Open button.

Alternatively, you can open this dialog window more quickly from the keyboard by pressing Ctrl+O.

The third way to open a spreadsheet file—either a StarCalc file or a Microsoft Excel file—is simply to click on the file icon. StarCalc launches with the file open and is ready to go.

Tip

The spreadsheet, illustrated in Figure 8-26, is an Excel file, as denoted by the .xls suffix in the filename at the top center of its workspace frame. This large file (or “Workbook,” as it is called in StarCalc) has 17 sheets and opens cleanly every time in StarCalc, with no errors. Although it is a large workbook with many calculations—fitting for a 10-year financial statement projection—it has simple formulas and labels that give no trouble to StarCalc’s file importation facilities. Spreadsheets, originating from other applications, are generally proven ...