IBM Workplace Managed Client 2.6 on Linux

114 IBM Workplace Managed Client 2.6 on Linux

4.1 Launching the IBM productivity tools

The IBM productivity tools can be run either embedded in the IBM Workplace

Managed Client or as applications run directly from the desktop. You can launch

them in a number of ways:

򐂰 Using the “IBM Productivity Tools” desktop icon

This opens a blank application with a dialog box asking the user what type of

application to create. The default launch behavior can be changed by

selecting File → Preferences in the application. See Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1 IBM Productivity Tools Preferences

򐂰 Using a file manager application and opening a file that is one of the tools’

associated file types

Using Nautilus or a similar graphical file manager, double-click a word

processing document, presentation, spreadsheet, or project file to open the

appropriate editor.

Chapter 4. IBM productivity tools 115

Figure 4-2 File Type Associations Preferences menu

The productivity tools store the file associations in MIME-type files in:

– $HOME/.gnome/application-info/seditor.applications

– $HOME/.gnome/mime-info/seditor.keys

– $HOME/.gnome/mime-info/seditor.mime

If there are any problems opening files of different types that you expect the

editors to handle, the user can check to make sure that these three MIME

files contain the appropriate entries to associate the editors with that file type.

Tip: The IBM productivity tools make it simple to change the file

associations for various office editor tools. Simply go to the File →

Preferences menu, select File Type Associations, and select the formats

you want to have the IBM productivity tools open by default, as shown in

Figure 4-2. Note that the Microsoft Office file types are not selected by

default and must be changed in the preferences menu in order to launch

the editors automatically.

116 IBM Workplace Managed Client 2.6 on Linux

򐂰 Using IBM Workplace Managed Client to open a file contained within a

document library

Opening or creating a file in a document library launches an embedded editor.

You can do this from a productivity file or from a productivity template. For

more information, see 2.5.2, “Working with documents” on page 54.

򐂰 Launching the desktop editors from a browser using the WebSphere Portal

Document Manager Web interface to a document library

When using the Web interface to a document library, select a document and

click the Edit button. A document description page opens in the browser.

Click the Open File button to launch the local editor associated with that file

type. After making the modifications, save the changes in the editor, close the

editor, and in the browser, select to either Publish the changes to the

document library or save it as a private draft.

Note: In order to shorten the time it takes to launch the productivity tools, IBM

Workplace Managed Client installs a script called preload.sh in

$HOME/.kde/Autostart/.

As mentioned in 3.2.6, “Uninstalling the Managed Client” on page 106, this

script loads portions of the productivity tools binaries and libraries into

memory. It is executed whenever the user logs in, or whenever Workplace

Managed Client is launched. It stays in the process table and monitors to see

whether or not the SodcPreload task is running. If not, it launches it. So, if

SodcPreload is killed in any manner, the preload.sh script automatically

restarts it.

If IBM only supports the client and productivity tools under GNOME on Linux,

why is it that they put this script in a KDE directory? Unfortunately, we do not

know the answer to this question.

Turn off this preloading capability in the productivity tools preferences. See

Figure 4-3.