Ubuntu Linux® For Dummies®

Chapter 16. Opening Your Ubuntu Office with OpenOffice.org

In This Chapter

• Introducing OpenOffice.org

• Using OpenOffice.org applications

• Printing with OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org is a suite of applications similar in function to Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org's application suite provides a word processor, spreadsheet, slide presentation editor, Web page editor, and other utilities. It's a powerful and sophisticated system.

OpenOffice.org's applications are compatible with their Microsoft Office peers. OpenOffice.org Writer, for instance, can read and write documents stored in Office 97/2000/XP, Office 95, and Office 6.0 — as well as many other non‐Microsoft formats. It's a powerful tool and well worth its cost. Oh yeah, OpenOffice.org is developed as an open source project, which means it costs nothing. Amazing.

Thanks to all the people in the world who put their energy and inspiration into projects like OpenOffice.org. Because of all of them, people like you me get to use sophisticated software such as Writer — which I'm writing with right now, of course. This chapter describes how to harness, configure, and use OpenOffice.org Writer — in other words, how to get the most bang for your buck.

Getting to Know OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org provides the following applications:

• Writer: Use a full‐featured word processor.

• Calc: Use a full‐featured spreadsheet.

• Impress: Create static and dynamic slide presentations.

• Drawing: Create drawings and diagrams.

• Database: Read and write to databases.