Now, if you already have OpenOffice you can still install LibreOffice. And if you are using Windows you simply have to download the installation file from the LibreOffice download page. If you are using Fedora Linux you can download the GNU Linux file which, once unpacked, will contain all the rpm files you need. If you want to install in Ubuntu, you have to first create debs from the rpms. I am going to show you how to do just that in this article (along with showing you how to install LibreOffice in Fedora).

Installing in Fedora

As stated earlier, you need to download the package from the download site. When you do you will have a file ~/Downloads/LO_3.3.0-beta1_Linux_x86_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz. NOTE: File name may vary depending upon location and when you download. Once you have that file downloaded open up a terminal window and follow these steps:

1. Change into the ~/Downloads directory.
2. Unpack the file with the command tar xvzf LO_3.3.0-beta1_Linux_x86_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz which will create a new directory ~/Downloads/en-US. NOTE: The newly created directory will be based on your location and language.
3. Change into the newly created directory.
4. Change into the RPMS subfolder.
5. Su to the root user and issue the command rpm -ivh *rpm to install the main packages.
6. Now change into the sub-directory desktop-integration.
7. Issue the command rpm -ivh *rpm to install the LibreOffice menu entries.

That’s it. LibreOffice is now installed on your Fedora machine.

Ubuntu

In order to install on Ubuntu you have to create .deb files out of the .rpm files included with the downloaded packages. To do this you first have to install the application Alien. To install Alien do the following:

1. Open up a terminal.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install alien.
3. Type your sudo password and hit Enter.
4. Accept any dependencies.

Once Alien is installed, change into the directory containing the LibreOffice rpm files and issue the command:

alien -k *rpm

When this finishes (it will take a while), issue the command:

sudo dpkg -i *deb

The above command will install the newly created .deb packages. Now you need to do the same thing with the desktop-integration files. So change into that sub-folder and issue the command:

alien -k *rpm

followed by the command:

sudo dpkg -i *deb

Now you will see LibreOffice in your Applications > Office menu. You can open it up and use it exactly as you would have used OpenOffice.

Final thoughts

One thing to note is that LibreOffice, as of this writing, is still in beta. But it is still very reliable and will improve at a far greater rate than OpenOffice ever did. I’m actually happy to see this happen. I believe that Oracle was going to bury OpenOffice and let it gather dust.

In this article I am going to present a few tips to help you help others migrate to the open source office suite. In the end, your users will enjoy a full-featured office suite that will cost $0.00 per seat to use (CAL about that?).

1. Change the default file type

For most users the default “save as” file types in OpenOffice will cause more trouble than not. They will create a document and then, when their co-workers/instructors/friends/etc recieve that .odt file, have no idea that Microsoft Office won’t be able to play nicely with their work. Although I prefer the open document format, I generally switch all default file types to the Microsoft equivalent. This is done in Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. Make sure you go through the drop-down and change all the necessary default formats so that when your user saves that precious document, it will open in other office suites.

2. Avoid the ribbon

I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of the 2007 Ribbon interface of Microsoft Office. Of course there are plenty of people using it. Now if you are coming from a standard interface to a ribbon interface the migration is much more difficult. I would imagine coming from a ribbon to a standard interface doesn’t hold nearly the challenge. But even still, what do you do? If you’re really desperate you can hold off until Project Renaissance comes to fruition. This project aims at create Open Office’s very own ribbon-like interface. Otherwise, ween your users off of the dreaded ribbon before migrating them to OpenOffice (if you think they will have any issues going back to a standard interface.)

3. Tool for tool, feature for feature

One thing that always surprises new-to-OO-users is that the open source suite does contain just about every feature they are used to using – and more. You will want to show the new users where all of the Open Office tools are: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, and Base (if installed). And once they see where all the tools are, show them that generally OpenOffice mimics MSO feature for feature. Keyboard shortcuts are similar (<Ctrl>c, <Ctrl>v, <Ctrl>p for example), menu entires are similar, spreadsheet formulas are similar. One of the best ways to ease a new user into OpenOffice is by showing them how little difference there truly is.

4. No personalized menus

MSO offers a feature some users grow to depend upon. After using a feature a number of times that feature will find its way to the top of menus in MSO. That is not the case in OO. Instead, in OO, the menu entries are static, so your users will need to get to know the full location of all the menu entries they need to use.

5. Auto-correct/auto-format

This is a huge feature in both suites. And fortunately, for new OO users, it works very similar in both suites. But OO offers one other tool that MSO doesn’t – word completion. You will find this in Tools > Autocorrect > Word Completion.

6. No side panes

Starting with Office XP, Microsoft introduced side panes to MSO. OO does not have side panes. The closest OO has to side panes are docked and/or floating windows for Navigator, Styles and Formatting, Gallery, Function Wizard, and Data Source Explorer. If your users insist on having sidebars in OO you can open the equivalent floating window, click on it’s title bar, and drag it to the side of the OO window until you see a dark outline where the window can dock. When you see that outline release the title bar and the window will dock.

7. Where is Print Preview?

Many users like to view their documents before printing. Print Preview allows the user to see what that document will look like in printed form. If you look through the OO menus you will not find a Print Preview. You will find, however, a Page Preview (File > Page Preview) They are the same thing.

Final thoughts

The migration from other office suites to OpenOffice really isn’t that difficult. In fact, many users might hardly notice the difference. But there are users that might wind up in a panic when they see their old friend MSO was replaced with OO. With these tips it shouldn’t be all that difficult to ease their worries. What about you? Have you found a tip or two to help ease the migration? If so, share.

There are lots of changes and improvements over Open Office 3.1.1, the current stable build that is still offered at the Open Office website.

Among the improvements are faster startup times for Open Office writer, draw and calc, improved ODF format support, added support for proprietary formats like password protected Microsoft Office XML documents, improved statistics function, changes in the way comments are added to Draw or Impress and new diagrams in Chart.

Interested users can take a look at the What’s New page to read up on all the changes and additions in Open Office 3.2.0 which are sorted by application.

The download has not been officially listed on the Open Office homepage. Users who want to download the new version of the Office suite right away can do so from one of the distribution mirror ftp sites. It is likely that the announcement will be made in the next 24 hours which suggests that waiting for the official release is another valid option.

Users who do need to download Open Office right now should however consider downloading Open Office 3.2.0 and not Open Office 3.1.1. (Thanks Caschy)

But is GNOME office and alternative that you should overlook? More than likely most readers didn’t even know there was a GNOME office. And of those that have heard rumors of this suite, many probably didn’t even know it was ready for installation. It is. But the big question…is it worth try? In this article I will highlight the tools that make up GNOME Office and help you to decide if this suite is worth your time.

Installation

The first thing I should bring up is the installation. Previous incarnations of GNOME Office required the user to install the pieces separately. That has changed and now you can open up the GNOME Software Center and follow these steps:

1. Search for ‘gnome office”.
2. Select GNOME Office.
3. Click the right-pointing arrow.
4. Click the Install button.
5. Enter your password.
6. Sit back and watch the installation happen.

What GNOME office installs is the following (some may already be installed):

• Abiword: Word processor
• Gnumeric: Spreadsheet
• Evolution: Email, contacts, calendar
• Planner: Project manager
• Inkscape: Vector graphics
• XSane: Scanning

There are other tools that are supposed to be included with GNOME Office, but are not installed:

• Gnucash: Finances.
• gLables: Label designer
• Glom: Database designer.

Why the above tools are listed on the GNOME Office official site and not installed I have no clue.  Of course those are simple enough to install, just by going to the Software Center and going through the same steps above.

Value of the applications

Instead of taking each piece apart and showing you how they work, I want to spend a little time on whether or not each application is a worthy usurper of your current tool. And since I do not know the tool you are using, the usurper is going to have to be pretty good.

Abiword: I have always wanted to like Abiword. And, in some instances I do. But the problem is that Abiword really stinks at document exchange. Abiword’s idea of formatting doesn’t always gel with another Office Suite’s idea. But I will say that Abiword has come a long, long way. And if you are just needing a simple word processor that is lightweight and fast, Abiword is a great alternative. Does it match the skills of OpenOffice? Not so much.

Gnumeric: Another tool that I have always wanted to like, but have been prevented from doing so because of its poor ability to work with other tools. Any spreadsheet that uses complex formulas or formatting will most likely wind up a bit of a mess in Gnumeric. But for basic spreadsheet use, Gnumeric will get the job done.

Evolution: If you are looking for a groupware suite to take the place of MS Outlook, this is where you need to go. Evolution is, without question, the best groupware suite available for Linux. It’s power, easy to use, reliable, and includes everything you need for a groupware suite. This is, by far, the best tool of the GNOME Office suite.

Planner: Because most office suites do not generally include a project management tool, planner is a surprising addition to the suite. Not only does planner bring a much needed tool to the office suite, it does so with aplomb.

Inkscape: There is only one office suite that includes a vector graphics application – OpenOffice. Inkscape brings to GNOME Office one tool that the competition can not touch. Inkscape is the best vector graphics tool for the Linux operating system. There is, however, a rather steep learning curve that comes with using Inkscape. So don’t expect to just jump into this tool without any idea of what you are doing.

XSane: You can read my article on Xscane (“Scanning in Linux with iScan and XSane.”) I think most readers will agree that XSane is an overly complex tool for a simple task. However, XSane can be made simple by simply closing all of the unnecessary windows.

The verdict

Although GNOME Office makes a valiant attempt at replacing your current office suite, it fails in too many categories to actually usurp the big dogs in this space. Now, if are in a situation where you are not having to trade documents with others and you do not need the power features of tools like Excel or Calc, and you don’t need a tool for presentations then GNOME Office might be your go-to suite of tools. Otherwise, stick with OpenOffice or MS Office.

What do you think? Is GNOME Office a worthy entry in the office suite category?

And then there’s OpenGoo. OpenGoo is an open source collaboration tool that is fully web-based, easy to use, simple to install, and free to use. But is OpenGoo for you and your company? This tutorial will show you how to get an OpenGoo installation up and running so you can kick the tires and find out if it is exactly what you need.

Features

OpenGoo offers all of the standard features of a business-level collaboration suite:

• Text documents
• Spreadsheets (coming soon)
• Presentations
• Task Lists
• E-mails
• Calendars
• Web Links
• Contacts

All you need to install an OpenGoo server is:

• Apache >= 2.0
• MySQL >= 5.0 (5.2 recommended)
• MySQL >= 4.1 with InnoDB support

Now, let’s get on with that installation.

Install

This installation will be done on a Ubuntu 9.10 setup. I have installed this on both desktop and server installation, but regardless of which you have installed, you will need a LAMP server running.

The first thing you need to do is to download the zip file from the OpenGoo download page. I downloaded and installed the 1.6 beta version which works nicely.

Once that file is downloaded, move that file to /var/www. Now, change to the /var/www/ directory and then unzip it with the command:

sudo unzip opengoo_1.6.beta-2.zip

NOTE: If you downloaded a different release, edit that command to reflect the release number.

Once that files is unzipped rename the directory with the command:

sudo mv opengoo_1.6.beta-2.zip opengoo

Now change into the /var/www/opengoo directory and issue the following commands:

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/config

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/cache

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/upload

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/tmp

With all the right permissions in play, it is time to create the database. I like to use PhpMyAdmin to make database creation simple. For more information about installing this tool check out my article “Install PhpMyAdmin for easy MySQL administration“. Use this tool to create a database called “opengoo” (No quotes).

Time to begin the web-based installation.

Fire up your browser and point it to:

http://IP_TO_SERVER/opengoo

Where IP_TO_SERVER is the actual IP Address of your OpenGoo server. You will be greeted with usual welcome screen that will tell you exactly what is going to happen during the installation. Click the Next button to continue on.

The second screen will run the environment checks. If everything gets and OK (and it should be if your LAMP server is up and running and you’ve taken care of all the permissions) click the Next button to continue on.

Figure 1

The third page of the installation (see Figure 1) is the first step that should require you to input any data.

The information should be fairly self explanatory. There is one point of note: If you plan on allowing access to your local LAN you will need to change the Absolute script URL to reflect the proper IP address (or domain).

Once you have all of this information in place, click the Next button which will take you to the congratulations screen where you only need click the Finish button to assume you’ve completed the installation.

Figure 2

Ah, but there is one more step. Figure 2 shows the final step for the installation. Here you need to create an administrator for your installation.

Setup your administrative user and click Submit. You can now log in to your OpenGoo server with your administrative user.

The basic interface

You will log into your OpenGoo server by entering the same address you did for the installation. When you log in you will be at the OpenGoo Getting Started Page (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

The OpenGoo installation will offer a very simple information page that will help you get started on your decision. But as you can see, the interface is laid out quite well. The tools are accessible and very user-friendly.

After using OpenGoo for a while I can assure you if you like Google’s suite of tools, you will like OpenGoo.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a very cost effect collaboration solution look no further than the open source OpenGoo suite of tools. Not only is it easy to use, it’s simple to install, and free of charge.

Some of the new features that have been added to Open Office 3.1 are antialiased drawings to smooth the edges of graphics, replying to notes, improved grammar checking, hyperlink management and sorting, control of slideshow media, macro support for Open Office Base, relative database paths, better internationalization for Hebrew and Arabic plus performance improvements (read our Speed up Open Office article for even more tips on how to improve the speed and performance).

The full list of changes and new features can be seen in the official Open Office 3.1 documentation which lists all the major improvements over previous Open Office versions.

Open Office 3.1 is available as a free download for Windows, Linux and Macintosh.

Abiword is considered part of the GNOME Office Suite, but does not require GNOME to be running to use.  Abiword is also available for Microsoft Windows. Abiword is available for most distributions and can be installed by both traditional routes. The first, and easiest method, is to open up your Add/Remove Software application (such as Ubuntus’ Synaptic), do a search for Abiword. What should appear is a list of possible matches. The following are the packages you need to install.

• abiword
• abiword-help
• abiword-plugin-mathview
• abiword-plugin-grammer
• abiword-common
• libgtkmathviewOc2a

Select those and click Apply to begin the installation.

Once installed you will find the Abiword entry in your desktops’ Office sub-menu. If you are using a desktop such as Enlightenment you may have to click Ctrl-Left Mouse Button (to make the Maintenance menu entry appear) and click Regenerate Menus to make Abiword appear. Once the menus have regenerated Abiword should be found in the Other menu in the Office sub-menu entry.

When Abiword opens what you will find is an efficient, well thought-out word processor that has everything you need to create solid, professional documents. You will also find some nice additions that make your writing even easier. One such tool is the Wikipedia entry tool. With a word highlighted you click the Wiki Encyclopedia entry and it will open the Opera browser on the Wiki entry of the highlighted word. There is also a Collaborate tool that allows users to collaborate on documents through Jabber. Of course Cisco purchased Jabber so who knows if collaboration with Abiword is going to be possible. The good news is you can do collaboration with a direct TCP connection (we’ll go into this in my next article.)

Final Thoughts

I have used Abiword and in the past have thought it had a ways to go before it was production ready.  Well, that time has come. Abiword is certainly worthy of being your word processor of choice.

The path of the final release is usually openoffice/stable/3.0.0/ on the ftp mirrors. Available are releases for all supported operating systems and the source codes. The release notes have not been updated yet but there cannot be many changes between Release Candidate 4 and the final release of Open Office due to the lack of time between the releases.

Cautious users should wait until Monday to download and install the release after the official announcement of the Open Office team.

Microsoft Office Migration Planning Manager is available as a free download from the official Microsoft homepage. It comes as a 2.7 Megabyte download and an Office 2007 Online Migration Guide which explains the usage of the migration tool.

To achieve this Microsoft created a set of tools for the purpose:

• The OMPM File Scanner which is included in the whole package can scan for conversion issues
• A set of tools to import the findings of the scanner into a new SQL database
• A reporting solution based on Microsoft Access 2007 that provides various report about the analysis
• The Office File Converter that can convert previous Office documents into Office 2007 format in bulk
• The Version Extraction Tool which makes it possible to extract saved versions into different files.

The Office scanner is a command line tool and a user who wants to use it has to edit an .ini file of the same name to add the drives and folders that should be scanned for Office documents.

One interesting tool that comes with the Microsoft Office Migration Planning Manager is the bulk Office 2007 converter which can convert Office documents that have been created with previous versions of Office into Office 2007 format.

Ofc.exe is available in the tools directory of the unpacked archive. To make it work the file ofc.ini has to be altered to at least contain a path to a folder with Office documents. Upon execution of ofc.exe those Office documents will be converted into Office 2007 documents.