Free the information hidden in your data

CALC is the spreadsheet program you’ve always wanted. Newcomers find it intuitive and easy to learn; professional data miners and number crunchers will appreciate the comprehensive range of advanced functions.

You’re also free to pull in data from corporate databases, and cross-tabulate, summarise, and manipulate with advanced DataPilot technology.

Natural language formulas let you create formulas using words (e.g. “sales – costs”).

The Intelligent Sum Button inserts a sum function or a subtotal automatically, depending on context.

The AutoPilot guides you through choosing and using a comprehensive range of advanced spreadsheet functions.

The Stylist makes it easy to apply flexible cell formatting options including freely rotating contents, templates, backgrounds, borders, and many more. You can be your own spreadsheet expert thanks to templates with built-in functions, allowing you to concentrate on your real work.

Scenario Manager allows “what if …” analysis at the touch of a button – e.g. compare profitability for high / medium / low sales forecasts.

Hide or reveal Design Themes with a single click – you are free to add your own themes.

Of course, you are free to use your old Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, or save your work in Excel format for sending to people who are still locked into Microsoft products. If all they want to see is your results, then use Portable Document Format (.pdf) – no need to buy any extra software.

Open up your databases

Databases are often thought to be strictly for techies. If you don’t talk Structured Query Language (SQL), then your database won’t talk to you. OpenOffice.org 1.1 changes all that. Its Database User Tools gives you all the tools you need for day to day database work in a simple spreadsheet-like form. They also make it simple to ‘drag and’ drop data into other OpenOffice.org 1.1 programs like Calc and Writer.

Maintaining your data

Using OpenOffice.org 1.1, you can:

• Create new tables for your data – and also change them as your needs change
• Maintain indexes on the tables to make data access faster
• View a table in an editing grid and add, change, and delete records
• Use the Report AutoPilot to produce impressive reports from your data1
• Use the Form AutoPilot to create ‘instant’ database applications

Using your data

Using OpenOffice.org 1.1, you can not only browse your data, but also:

• Perform simple (single column) or complex (multi-column) sorts
• View subsets of your data with simple (one-click) or complex (logical query) filters
• Create powerful queries to show your data in new ways, including summaries and multi-table views
• Produce reports in a wide variety of formats using the Report AutoPilot

Technical footnotes

For simple database applications, OpenOffice.org 1.1 supports dBASE (.dbf) databases without any additional software. For more advanced requirements, OpenOffice.org 1.1 supports the MySQL database natively1, or any database through ODBC and JDBC drivers. There is a MySQL / OpenOffice.org 1.0 HOW-TO on the unixODBC site.

Free the artist hidden within you

DRAW – from a quick sketch to a complex plan, DRAW gives you the tools to communicate with graphics and diagrams.

‘Park’ your most commonly used drawing tools around your screen ready for single-click access.

Use the Stylist to put all your graphics styles at your finger tips.

Manipulate objects, rotate in two or three dimensions; the 3D controller puts spheres, rings, cubes, etc. at your disposal.

Arrange objects: group, ungroup, regroup, and edit objects while grouped. Sophisticated rendering let you create photorealistic images with your own texture, lighting effects, transparency, perspective, and so on.

Smart connectors make short work of flowcharts, organisation charts, network diagrams, etc. Define your own ‘glue points’ for connectors to ‘stick’ to.

Dimension lines automatically calculate and display linear dimensions as you draw.

Use the picture Gallery for clipart; create your own art and add it to the Gallery.

Import graphics from all common formats (including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and WMF).

Use DRAW’s free ability to create Flash (.swf) versions of your work.

Free to impress your audience

IMPRESS is a truly outstanding tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will stand out with 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, and high-impact drawing tools.

AutoLayouts simplify the task of preparing your materials.

A complete range of Views are supported: Drawing / Outline / Slides / Notes / Handouts to meet all the needs of presenters and audiences.

IMPRESS has a complete range of easy-to-use drawing and diagramming tools to spice up your presentation.

‘Park’ your most commonly used drawing tools around your screen ready for single-click access.

Slide show Animation and Effects bring your presentation to life. Fontworks provides stunning 2D and 3D images from text. Create lifelike 3D images with astounding speed and response.

Of course, you are free to use your old Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, or save your work in PowerPoint format for sending to people who are still locked into Microsoft products. Alternatively, use IMPRESS’s built-in ability to create Flash (.swf) versions of your presentations.

Create equations and formulae for your documents

OpenOffice.org has a component for mathematical equations. It is most commonly used as an equation editor for text documents, but it can also be used with other types of documents or stand-alone. When used inside Writer, the equation is treated as an object inside the text document. Similarly, one can also insert these into other OpenOffice.org 1.1 programs like Calc and Impress.

Using OpenOffice.org 1.1, there are three main ways of entering a formula:

• Type markup in the equation editor.
• Right-click on the equation editor and select the symbol from the context menu.
• Select a symbol from the Selection toolbox.

Great software – now better than ever

When OpenOffice.org 1.0 was released, no one could believe that software this good could be free. An estimated 16 million+ people have downloaded the software; many more have installed it from CDs or were passed copies by enthusiastic users. Community members produced translations in over 30 languages.

The OpenOffice.org community listened to users’ comments, fixed their bugs, and is now proud to announce OpenOffice.org. More powerful, more compatible, more international, more accessible, more open than ever1 – and best of all, this world class software is still free!

A new approach to office productivity software

OpenOffice.org gives you everything you’d expect in office software. You can create dynamic documents, analyse data, design eye-catching presentations, produce dramatic illustrations, and open up your databases. You can publish your work in Portable Document Format (.pdf), and release your graphics in Flash (.swf) format – without needing any additional software. OpenOffice.org is now available for more users than ever, with support for complex text layout (CTL) languages (such as Thai, Hindi, Arabic, and Hebrew) and vertical writing languages.

If you’re used to using other office suites – such as Microsoft Office – you’ll be completely at home with OpenOffice.org. However, as you become used to OpenOffice.org, you’ll start to appreciate the extras that make your life easier. You can of course continue to use your old Microsoft Office files without any problems – and if you need to exchange files with people still using Microsoft Office, that’s no problem either.

What’s in the suite?

WRITER Is a powerful tool for creating professional documents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. You can easily integrate images and charts in documents, create everything from business letters to complete books with professional layouts, as well as create and publish Web content.

CALC is a feature-packed spreadsheet which can turn boring numbers into eye-catching information. Calculate, analyse, and visually communicate your data quickly and easily. Use advanced spreadsheet functions and decision-making tools to perform sophisticated data analysis. Use built-in charting tools to generate impressive 2D and 3D charts.

IMPRESS is the fastest, most powerful way to create effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will truly stand out with special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools.

DRAW will produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects.

The Database User Tools give you all the tools you need for day to day database work in a simple spreadsheet-like form. They support dBASE databases for simple applications, or any ODBC or JDBC compliant database for industrial strength database work.

The Suite Advantage

OpenOffice.org is more than a collection of five superb tools.

Unlike some competitors, this suite was not created from a collection of separate pieces of software. From the start, it was designed as one complete office package.

• All the packages have a similar ‘look and feel’ making them very easy to use, with common ‘learn once use everywhere’ tools like the Navigator and Stylist.
• The same tools are used consistently across the suite – for example, the tools you use to work with graphics within Writer are also found in Impress and Draw.
• You don’t need to know which application was used to create a particular file – you can ‘File Open’ any OpenOffice.org file from anywhere and the correct application will be launched.
• All the packages share a common spell-checker, etc.; and if you change an ‘Option’ in one package, it’s changed in them all.
• Information can be transferred easily between all the packages.
• All packages save data in the same industry-standard XML format, with substantial disk space savings compared to common proprietary formats.
• All the packages are installed in one single operation.
• All the packages are released under the same open licensing model – there are no hidden charges now or in the future.

The Freedom to make your documents look great

WRITER has everything you would expect from a modern, fully equipped word processor.

It’s simple enough for a quick memo, powerful enough to create complete books with contents, diagrams, indexes, etc. You’re free to concentrate on your message – while WRITER makes it look great.

The Auto-Pilot takes all the hassle out of producing standard documents such as letters, faxes, agendas, minutes. You are of course free to create your own templates.

The Stylist puts the power of style sheets into the hands of every user.

You’re free to add words and phrases to the AutoCorrect dictionary, which can check your spelling as you type.

AutoComplete suggests common words and phrases to complete what you are typing.

AutoFormat takes care of the formatting as you write, leaving you free to concentrate on your message.

Text frames and linking mean you are free to lay out newsletters, flyers, etc. exactly the way you want them to be.

Increase the usefulness of your long, complex documents by generating a table of contents or indexing terms, bibliographical references, illustrations, tables, and other objects.

You are free to choose your own email software – WRITER offers direct connection to email software.

Make your documents freely available with WRITER’s HTML export to the web, or publish in Portable Document Format (.pdf) to guarantee that what you write is what your reader sees.

Of course, you are free to use old Microsoft Word documents, or save your work in Word format for sending to people who are still locked into Microsoft products.