Fortunately OpenOffice has a powerful Extension system that allows you to extend the functionality of OpenOffice. One extension, Writer’s Tools, is intended for writers: Professional writers, students, any level. Typically OpenOffice extensions are as easy to install as a Firefox addon. In the case of Writer’s Tools, there are a few more steps involved. In this article you will see just how this is done so you too can enjoy the powerful additions offered by this extension.

Features

The Writer’s Tools extension includes the following features:

• Dictionary lookup
• Google translate
• Google map support
• Email and multi-format backup
• Remote backup
• Amazon S3 backup
• Timer
• Converter
• Bookmarks
• Word of the day
• Notebook

and more

Installing an Extension

Installing an extension in OpenOffice is simple. The first thing to do is to download the file. In some cases the file will be a single file with the extension .oxt, in which the Extension Manager will automatically open and install the file. In some cases (such as with Writer’s Tools) the downloaded file is a zip file that contains a few necessary pieces. In this case you would open the Extension Manager manually and install the file. Let’s see how it’s done. First download the Writer’s Tools file and then unzip the package.  Now open the Extension Manager.

Figure 1

To open the Extension Manager first open up OpenOffice Writer and then click on the Tools menu. Within the Tools menu you will see the Extension Manager entry which will open the Extension Manager window (see Figure 1).

Click on the Add button which will open up a window where you can navigate to the Writer’s Tools file you downloaded. The file you want to add is called WriterTools.oxt. When you open this file you will have to agree to a license to proceed.

Once you have the extension installed you will have to restart OpenOffice in order for the Writer’s Tools menu to show up in OpenOffice. You’re not done quite yet.

The database

Figure 2

Before you move on to install the database, you need to make sure you have OpenOffice.org Base installed. To do this go to your Add/Remove Software tool and search for “openoffice” (no quotes). In the listing you will see the Base entry. Mark that for installation and click Apply to install. After the installation is complete you are ready to move on.

There are a couple of tools in Writer’s Tools that require you to register database. Fortunately the Writer’s Tools creator has included the necessary database in the zip file. To register this database go to the Options Window (which can be accessed from the Tools menu) and then expand the OpenOffice.org Base entry (see Figure 2).

Once there click on the Databases entry and then click the New button and then the Browse button to locate the file WriterDB.odb and then OK to register this database.

Now that the database is registered you will have all of the Writer’s Tools available to you.

Final thoughts

If you do any writing, for work, for school, for pleasure – whatever – you need to try the Writer’s Tools extension. This tool will make your writing life much more efficient and enjoyable.

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It’s a bit slower the 2.4, it’s got a nice new start centre, an icon refresh, a zoom control on the status bar and is now capable of supporting extensions to increase functionality.

To be honest I can’t say there are a great many useful downloads available at the moment, but some of them would be pretty handy if you use Open Office on a regular basis:

Professional Template Pack
A collection of elements to create your own professional style templates for documents, forms and presentations

Sun Web Blog Publisher
Microsoft Word 2007 comes with some impressive blogging capabilities, but now Writer can too. This extension supports “many popular blog services’”, so having not used it I can’t guarantee it’ll work for yours, but give it a try and see.

GoogleDocs to Open Office.
This works for both Google Docs and Zoho and can import and export your documents and presentations between Open Office and thestwo online services.

Oxygen Office Gallery Extras
A compilation of clip art and templates for your documents. Comes with multiple languages and with some other extras.

Pagination
A simple little dialogue to insert page numbers, works with all localizations.

Crop Images
Crop images in Draw and Impress with this add-on.

Writer’s Tools
If you live in Writer during the day, churning out documents or whatever it is you do then this pack will provide you with all the extra functions and features necessary. There are some pretty useless additions to this set, but some notable tools are:

• Lookup Tool
• Email Backup
• Remote Backup
• Start/Stop Timer
• Add to Basket
• miniInvoices

Test Fonts
This seems pretty handy, it searches for all the fonts contained in the document on your system. It then reports on missing fonts, all used fonts and gives statistics on available fonts.

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The Open Office Extension Repository lists the currently available extensions for Open Office. Visitors can use the search function, the tag cloud or one of the six available entries like viewing the most popular or recently updated extensions for Open Office. Some extensions are, contrary to the Firefox add-ons website, not free but the majority of available ones are.

A quick glance at the available extensions brought up already several that I will definitely look closer at. You can grab some free content extensions like professional template packs (free) or graphics from the website and add (advanced) support for online services like Google Docs.

Sun did develop some useful add-ons as well. The two that caught my attention are the Sun Presentation Minimizer which reduces the size of presentations and the Sun Report Builder which can be used to create professional looking database reports.

The Open Office Extensions website is definitely worth taking a look at if you are an Open Office user.

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