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?

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Jumps display bookmarks, paragraphs and headings of the text in a separate always on top window which makes it convenient and comfortable to navigate the text. The colors and pretty much any design parameter can be changed in the program’s option to allow the user to select his own fonts, colors and page layout.

The repository which was mentioned earlier is not part of the original text but is connected to it. It can be filled with ideas and text that is not yet ready to be included in the real text document. Texts can be saved in text format only with the option to export markup – like bold or italic text – so that it can be viewed correctly in web browsers and word processors.

Another interesting feature is the progress bar which can be used to define a text length which is often required when writing journalistic texts or essays. The very same menu contains countless statistics about the text that has been written so far and a function called sprint writing which will limit the writing time. Both the text progress and the time limit can be displayed in the main interface.

Additional features:

• Customizable Printing
• Spell Checker
• Multi Monitor Support
• Firefox Integration
• Auto Backups, History
• Replacements (add predefined text by writing shortcuts)
• Bookmarks

The main problem that many writers will face is that the document can only be saved in text format which might require a few additional steps in another word processor to save the document in another format or to beautify it before publishing it or sending it in.

Write Monkey (via Tech Yard) is a portable application for the Windows operating system that requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 or higher

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In fact I think once you have a bit of a poke around you’ll discover quite a few changes which really improve the program.

Changes to the UI:

• The addition of tabs along the bottom of the screen which switch views between normal, preview and HTML. It doesn’t look quite as attractive but it’s certainly more usable
• Toolbar revised and Weblogs menu moved to the top right
• Search through your categories

New Features:

• Video Publishing was possible through a plug-in, but now it has been incorporated into the program.
• Image editing, now you can add 5 more borders to your images and rotate, adjust contrast, tilt and crop. The addition of crop is particularly useful.
• Word Count! Boy I’m sure glad this was included… I would say that out of all these changes it’s the feature I most wanted, even though you could get it through a plugin.
• Support for.gif, Lightbox and other image previewing effects
• Addition of ‘check for updates’ in the help context menu
• Images can now be centred from the properties panel
• Automatic linking to specified terms. (example: I could specify a frequently used word such as gHacks to be auto-linked)

SDK changes

These are quite significant changes, but I think I can foresee some issues coming in the future. The SDK now allows for two new plugin types:

Code can now be executed before or after a blog post is published. Two example have been included with the preview for Twitter and Digg. This means blog posts can now be automatically submitted to Digg or your Twitter stream or a myriad other services. While this is handy it does mean some people will abuse the system.

Digg isn’t about submitting every blog posts you write, it’s about submitting a page that is actually good. That was the whole purpose, filter out the crap. Otherwise how does Digg become different then simply having your blog indexed by Google?

Plugins can also now be created to insert content into your headers or footers plugins can insert content as you publish your blog post.

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