The OpenOffice desktop productivity suite does nearly everything Microsoft Office does, but for less money. How much less? Well, 100 percent less because it’s 100 percent free. Sun Microsystems, Inc., sells the version named StarOffice and also provides an open source version named — you guessed it — OpenOffice. OpenOffice is licensed under the GPL/LGPL and SIISL licenses. What do all those letters mean? They mean f-r-e-e, and they also mean that Linux can integrate office productivity features from OpenOffice because Linux and OpenOffice share the GPL license. You can find more information about the licenses at www.openoffice.org/project/www/licensel.
OpenOffice is not only free (did we mention that it’s free?), but it’s also powerful, providing you with these functions:
Word processor: A full-function what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) word processor named Writer. OpenOffice Writer comes with many functions you would expect — formatting, cutting and pasting, graphics, spell checking, and more, as shown in Figure 13-1. It uses its own format and can also read from and write to Rich Text Format (RTF); plus, it handles Microsoft Word 6.0, Word 95, and Word 97, Word 2000, and Word XP files.
Figure 13-1: The OpenOffice word processor window.
Spreadsheet: A full-function spreadsheet program, named Calc, used by Wall Street brokers to calculate their option strike prices and similar items. If you’re familiar with spreadsheet software, Calc should be straightforward to use. Figure 13-2 shows the initial Calc window.
Figure 13-2: The OpenOffice spreadsheet window.
Presentation: A graphics program named Impress with all the bells and whistles for creating presentations. You can also import and export PowerPoint documents with Impress. Figure 13-3 shows the Impress window.
Figure 13-3: The OpenOffice Impress window.
Drawing: The OpenOffice Draw program gives you graphics tools for creating anything from a novice drawing to a masterpiece, as shown in Figure 13-4. Draw provides your creative side with a tool for creating graphics.
Figure 13-4: The OpenOffice graphics program, Draw.
Miscellaneous: OpenOffice provides other functions, such as an HTML editor, a math editor for supernerds, and label and business card creation tools. You can also create word processing templates.
TipOkay, so OpenOffice has lots of great features. How good are they? Can they get the job done? Well, we wrote this edition of the book using OpenOffice, and we wrote the preceding edition using StarOffice. That’s not a bad testimonial to the capabilities of OpenOffice.