StarOffice 6.0 Office Suite Companion

The user-friendly guide to mastering StarOffice Office Suite and OpenOffice.org.

• The user-friendly, task-based guide to StarOffice 6.0 Office Suite and OpenOffice.org 1.0
• For Windows, Linux, and Solaris OE platforms
• Covers Writer, Web, Calc, Impress, Draw, databases and formulas, and more

Imagine an inexpensive office productivity suite that's powerful and easy to use, and includes great extras like a drawing program and database connectivity. StarOffice 6.0 Office Suite and the open source equivalent OpenOffice.org 1.0 deliver all of this and outstanding Microsoft Office compatibility at an amazing low price for millions of Linux, Windows, and Solaris Operating Environment users.

Learn StarOffice for the first time, or get to know the great new features in the latest release, with StarOffice 6.0 Office Suite Companion, the comprehensive, insider's guide straight from Sun Microsystems, developer of StarOffice Office Suite.

StarOffice 6.0 Office Suite Companion also incorporates solutions to questions from hundreds of new and expert StarOffice Office Suite and OpenOffice.org users, making this the most practical, task-based book around. It delivers clear, step-by-step instructions, focusing on what you need to do to get your job done.

StarOffice 6.0 Office Suite is a Sun ONE Software Offering.

You'll find comprehensive coverage of all of the following and more:

• Great information across applications: Conversion to and from Microsoft file formats, as well as opening nearly 200 other file formats.
• Migration from StarOffice 5.2, and what's new in StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.0.
• Tips on using OpenOffice.org, the open source version of StarOffice, and the minor details in which it differs from StarOffice.
• Answers to hundreds of frequently asked questions, including how to print spreadsheet headings on multiple pages, automatically converting from and saving to Microsoft formats, and migration tips.
• Quick Start tutorials that teach you the key features of each application, plus procedures on customizing StarOffice to make using it simple and productive.
• Comprehensive coverage of each application:
  • StarOffice Writer—Editing, formatting, mail merge, printing to postscript and PDF, long documents, version control, comparing documents.
  • StarOffice Web—Creating Web pages with the AutoPilot, hotlinks, viewing and editing source. animated GIFs, and marquees.
  • StarOffice Calc—Formatting, everything about data entry and calculations in spreadsheets, including the function AutoPilot, scenarios and goal seek, exporting to HTML and inserting spreadsheets in other documents.
  • StarOffice Impress—Creating, designing, and delivering presentations, including custom presentations and animation.
  • StarOffice Draw and image editing features—Using the vast array of drawing tools, including 3D, distorting and manipulating shapes and text, editing raster graphics like photos, exporting to formats like GIF, EPS, and SVG.
• Connecting to data sources—Bringing in the data from spreadsheets or databases, plus using the Web form AutoPilot.

Want to learn how to get things done with StarOffice? Here's the practical, direct, expert guide you've been searching for: StarOffice 6.0 Office Suite Companion.

Online Sample Chapter

Introduction to StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.0

Preface

Preface

Note - See Top Ten Reasons to Use StarOffice or OpenOffice.org on page 5.

It used to be that the saying "You get what you pay for" ranked up there with such indisputable truths as, "What goes up must come down," "Water is wet," and "I had to restart Windows today." But since StarOffice is a miniscule $75 at the time we write this book, "you get what you pay for" is not only disputable, but just plain false. Plus OpenOffice.org beats that-it's free.

Sun Microsystems' StarOffice is a full-featured, remarkably good office suite that matches Microsoft Word program for program, and goes a giant step further with a great graphics program. StarOffice's applications for working with documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations, web sites, graphics, and databases make StarOffice or OpenOffice.org the best office suite choice, hands down.

Create a Web site start-to-finish (along with graphics, animations, and image maps). Open your old WordStar files from college and your WordPerfect files from your first job. Scrape your jaw on the ground when you see how small the file sizes are.

What goes up must come down. Water is wet. StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice.org are spectacular (the reviewers on Amazon think so too), and have a bunch of enhancements over StarOffice 5.2. We spent time in a few of Sun's usability sessions, between 5.2 and 6.0, and we're satisfied and impressed that Sun incorporated a lot of crucial feedback.

(And yes, I really did have to restart Windows today.)

StarOffice is particularly strong in its ability to open Microsoft Office file formats and save the documents back as Microsoft Office files. It even boasts an AutoPilot that automatically converts entire directories of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents and their templates to StarOffice formats.

StarOffice runs on Windows, Linux, Lindows, and Solaris. The OpenOffice.org group is working on versions for Mac OSX, FreeBSD, and other platforms.

This is a book that lets you find what you need quickly and get it done. This isn't a book for "dummies", with epic-length procedures for cutting and pasting. On the other hand, we don't include extensive details on those sexy technical issues like mime types and LDAP

We wrote the book that we would want: all the important stuff, but nothing too basic or technically impractical for the intermediate user (and with a little humor along the way). We also talked to hundreds of new StarOffice and OpenOffice.org users, so we were able to document what people really need to do.

If you're like most intermediate users, you already know enough to be dangerous, which means you'll probably just dive in and try to do things in StarOffice without any help. Sometimes that strategy works, other times it doesn't. If it doesn't, read the relevant sections in this book.

For instance, one of the most frequently asked questions is "How do I print spreadsheet headings on every page?" The answer has been in this book all along. Go read Repeating Spreadsheet Headings (Rows or Columns) on Each Page on page 628.

We also indexed the living daylights out of this book, so use the Index, too, particularly a little entry we like to call "troubleshooting."

You can get more info on StarOffice and OpenOffice.org in Chapter 1, Introduction to StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice 1.0, on page 3. You'll find the top ten reasons to use StarOffice and OpenOffice.org, essentials about each program, the new features, and tips for you Microsoft Office users on switching over.

Download and install StarOffice or OpenOffice.org if you haven't already. See Chapter 2, Installation, on page 19 for more information.

Go through Chapter 5, Setup and Tips, on page 97. It gives you an overview of the StarOffice work environment and shows you lots of useful things that will help you no matter which StarOffice applications you're using.

Use the tutorials. We've included something for those of you who like to plunge in quickly and get your hands dirty, without reading all the procedures ahead of time. At the beginning of most major parts of the book, there's a section called Quick Start that contains a Guided Tour. The guided tour leads you through specific steps that will help you get to know a lot of the features for each product, including features you probably won't come across while just exploring, as well as few tips that will make using StarOffice and OpenOffice.org a breeze.

Don't panic!

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements.


Table of Contents.


Preface.

I. GETTING STARTED.

II. WRITER.

III. WEB.

IV. CALC.

V. IMPRESS.

VI. DRAWING AND IMAGE EDITING.

VI. STORED DATA FIELDS, DATA SOURCES, AND FORMS.

Downloadable Sample Chapter

Click here for a sample chapter for this book: 0130384739.pdf