Opening specific applications from the suite is a bit tricky if you're not used to the process. Below is a list of the commands you'll need to run to open each of the corresponding applications. These commands are located in the programs directory within the OpenOffice main directory.

• swriter - word processor
• scalc - spreadsheet application
• smath - formula editor/creator
• sweb - HTML editor
• simpress - presentation package

There are numerous other commands that actually run subprograms from within the main applications (for instance, sfax runs the fax editor from within swriter), but these applications are typically not run on their own.

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For Windows users, the slow startup won't be a major issue. After installing the application, an icon will appear in the system tray for the quick-start daemon. This cuts the load time on a Windows machine by a third. In Linux, you can install the ooqstart application to cut down on the startup time. Unfortunately, the ooqstart application requires that gnome-core and gnome-core-devel be installed on the machine. If, like me, you are using the latest release from Ximian, neither gnome-core nor gnome-core-devel is installed.

If you are using a version of GNOME that includes both gnome-core and gnome-core-devel, get ooqstart, install it, and put the applet on your panel to drastically cut down on OpenOffice.org's startup time.

How does it compare?
The OpenOffice.org application suite performs almost identically to StarOffice 6, so it's a good match for Microsoft Office. With the OpenOffice.org suite, I was able to open and save to the Office 2000/XP file formats and even embed objects (OLE objects, plug-ins, videos, applets, formulas, and charts). OpenOffice.org is an outstanding application that would well serve any enterprise looking to cut costs. As an end-user application, OpenOffice.org is as simple to use as any other office suite and is as stable as any other--if not more so. Based on my own experience, I've had far fewer crashes and data loss with the OpenOffice.org suite than I've had with Microsoft Office, StarOffice, or Applixware. The issues arise when you attempt to use some of the more advanced features of an office suite and then share the document with another suite.

The first issue is that of fonts. Fonts have been the Achilles' heel of the Linux desktop for quite some time now. OpenOffice.org hasn't done too much to fix this problem. Even if you have the latest GNOME or KDE, by using anti-aliasing the fonts will remain fairly bitmapped. There are certain fonts (Alexandria, Arioso, Bookman L, Batang, Century Schoolbook L, and all of the *L fonts) that do a very good job of anti-aliasing, but many of these fonts do not have a Microsoft Word equivalent and will map to the closest equivalent. As the default font in Microsoft Word, Times New Roman is not horrible in OpenOffice.org. If you don't mind the bitmapped quality of this font, you will be fine (it migrates perfectly to Microsoft Word).

Embedded objects were a bit of a trick with OpenOffice.org. Although they work perfectly within the application itself (adding an embedded spreadsheet worked just fine), I was unsuccessful at viewing the embedded object in Microsoft Word. Although OpenOffice.org could view a document created by Microsoft Word with an embedded object, if the document was saved in OpenOffice.org, the object was lost. It is possible to "pull" the embedded spreadsheet out of the document and save it on its own, but that defeats the purpose of embedding objects.

One other glitch involved double quotes. It took me a while to figure out how to stop OpenOffice.org from replacing double quotes with a question mark. To fix this, navigate to the AutoFormat tool (through the Format drop-down menu), click on the Custom Quotes tab, and then uncheck Replace under the Double Quotes section. After doing this, all double quotes will remain intact.

One enormous application
OpenOffice.org is the single largest open source application available, and it is huge. To go through all the available features would require a month's worth of articles. Suffice it to say that, if you can do it in Microsoft Office, you can do it in OpenOffice.org--for free.

From installation to use, OpenOffice.org is a valid stand-in for Microsoft Office for anyone looking to save a great deal of money. If you're confident that your users fall into the category of those who use only 5 percent of Microsoft Office's feature set (a majority of the computing world), making the switch to OpenOffice.org shouldn't be a problem. If, however, you know you have users who must exchange embedded objects with Microsoft Office users, your best bet is to stick with Microsoft Office until the gents at OpenOffice.org are able to get their suite to play well with Microsoft Object linking and embedding (OLE).

Have you considered switching from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org? What's stopping you? TalkBack below or e-mail us.
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