1.

• • OpenOffice.org: Free and Open Source Office Suite

• Michelle Murrain, Nonprofit Open Source Initiative

• February 26 th2008

2. What well cover today

What is OpenOffice.org

Brief history of OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org components

• Writer

• Calc

• Impress

• Base

• Other components

Strengths and Weaknesses

Examples of use (and demos)

How to get help

Do you migrate?

3. OpenOffice.org...

is a cross-platform, mutli-function office suite

is software that supports open standards

reads and writes MS Office formats (except .docx)

has matured considerably

is free (as in beer) as well as free software/open source

is not Open Office! (Trademark issues)

4. Cross Platform

Available as a free download from openoffice.org for windows

Is bundled with most Linux distributions

Two versions are available for Macintosh

• Official OpenOffice.org works only with X-Windows

• NeoOffice is an Aqua port of OpenOffice.org

• Official Aqua port is in alpha

5. Brief History of OpenOffice.org

Originally a proprietary office suite

Bought by Sun Microsystems in 1999

Most of the code was released as open source as OpenOffice.org in 2000

OpenOffice.org 1.0 released in 2002

StarOffice still exists, and has some proprietary components (like the database, and clip art, etc.)

OpenOffice.org is now on version 2.3.1

6. OpenOffice.org Components

Writer word processor

Calc spreadsheet

Impress presentation program

Base desktop database

Drawing drawing program

HTML editor

Formula Editor

7. OpenOffice.org Components

are the basics of any office suite, and more

work together

have similar interfaces (easy to get familiar with)

are full-functioning

are pretty much bug-free

8. Writer

Word Processor

lots of input and output filters

exports directly to PDF

columns, tables, etc.

9. Calc

Spreadsheet

Graphs

Functions

lots of input/output fiters

10. Impress

reads and writes .ppt files

templates, master pages, etc.

animation

this presentation was written using Impress

11. Base

Designed as an Access clone

Uses HSQLDB (foss Java database) for back-end or can use other databases via ODBC

can read Access files (table structure and data only)

Not equivalent to Access (think Access97)

12. Drawing

Basic draw program

useful for diagrams and flowcharts

13. Math

nice equation editor, if you need one

14. HTML Editor 15. Strengths of OOo

Open Source

Free (as in beer)

depends on open standards

reads and writes MS Office formats (except ooxml at this point)

Google docs reads OOo files

90% of the functionality of Word, Excel and Powerpoint

16. Strengths, cont.

Components are integrated

Lots of developers

backed by Sun, IBM and Novell, among others

lots of third party extensions

17. Weaknesses of OOo

still a few kinks to work out

Base isnt up to snuff

cant read ooxml yet

OOoMS Office rendering has issues at times

Menus and features are different than MS Office

true collaborative editing between OOo and MS Office doesnt work well (but thats less of an issue now than it used to be.)

Not as slick

Can be slower/take more resources than MS Office

18. Open Standards

What are they?

Why are they important?

• Faithful reading and rendering of files forever

• Faithful reading and rendering of files no matter what the software used

Open Document Format vs. Office Open XML

• ODF is a bonified open standard (since 2006)

• OOXML has not been approved as a standard yet (a big meeting about it is happening this week.) Word on the street is that it might not happen.

19. Examples of use

Letters

Writing articles/whitepapers, etc.

Newsletters

Contact lists

Charts and graphs

Presentations

Simple databases

20. How to get help

OpenOffice.org Forums

• Active and helpful

OpenOffice.org IRC channel

• #OpenOffice.org on irc.freenode.net

• • I hang out there

• • it is possible to get immediate help with problems

• OpenOffice.orgLinks

21. Should you migrate?

First, for whom?

• individual

• organization

• • Some users

• • All users

Then, ask why?

• committed to open standards/open source

• need inexpensive software

• run out of donation licenses for MS Office

22. Should you migrate, cont.

Ask about how much interoperability you need with MS Office or other office suites

• read/write all types of documents

• collaborative editing

• interoperability with MS Access

Platform is also an issue

• Windows and Linux versions of OpenOffice.org are good. Macintosh versions are lagging

23. Should you migrate, cont.

tech-savvy users

no need for collaborative editing of documents

no integration with MS Access required

few very high-level MS-specific functionality used

have both Windows and Linux users

less tech-savvy users

lots of collaborative editing

integration with MS Access required

uses bleeding edge MS-only functionality

want the cheesy clip-art

Smooth Sailing Rough Waters 24. Should you migrate, cont.

There are differing opinions about how much training is needed to move people to become comfortable with OOo.

Certainly, the vast majority of organizational tasks that MS Office can do, can be done with OOo (with the exception of MS Access functionality.)

Assessment of both functionality needed, as well as end-user issues must be balanced with impetus to migrate, if any.

25. Process of Migration

Talk to end-users. Make sure all functions that they need have an equivalent (or work-around.)

Allow time for training, and users to get used to it.

If some users in an organization still have MS Office, make sure that the default setting is to save in MS Office formats

26. Conclusions

OpenOffice.org is a full-featured, cross-platform, mature office suite that you should at least download and try out

It is based on open standards

It has all of the features (and more) of MS Word, Powerpoint, and Excel

It is freely available, and open source

It has the backing of big companies, so it is not going away

It does have weaknesses, and migration to OOo is not a slam-dunk.