Ubuntu® Linux® Secrets

Chapter 7. The OpenOffice Suite

Secrets in This Chapter

• Installing OpenOffice

• Word Processing

• Spreadsheets

• Presentation Graphics

• Database

• Drawing

• Math

Without a doubt, the Microsoft Office product has revolutionized the world of office software. It has become the de facto standard in word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation graphics programs. Computer users compare all other office software packages to Microsoft Office products. Unfortunately, there's not a version of Microsoft Office that runs directly on Ubuntu. If you want Microsoft Office products in Linux, you have to use an open-source look-alike package.

In Ubuntu, that package is the OpenOffice.org suite of software, which contains packages that replicate each of the programs in Microsoft Office. This chapter discusses how to build your perfect office software environment, then walks through how to use the individual packages contained in OpenOffice.org.

The OpenOffice.org Suite

The OpenOffice.org suite of software packages includes several packages to provide office automation functionality to your desktop. The full OpenOffice.org suite contains the software components shown in Table 7-1.

Table 7.1. The OpenOffice.org Software Components

Package	Description
Base	Graphical database
Calc	Spreadsheets
Draw	Drawing
Impress	Presentation graphics
Math	Mathematics
Writer	Word processing

Ubuntu only installs the Calc and Writer packages during the default installation process. After the programs have been installed, you can access them by selecting ...