Browsing Through the New OpenOffice.org 2.0 Features

Note: See this related article by Craig Adams.

There are a zillion new 2.0 features. I'm going to go over my favorites, and/or the ones that I think are the most useful or notable. If you want to read the whole list, go to http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/2.0/index.html  Or, of course, download the release candidate at www.openoffice.org

Finding the Icons and the Toolbars You Need

There's a slick new way to get at all the different toolbars in OpenOffice.org. Anyone who's used OpenOffice.org 1.x knows about the big blue triangle, the small green triangle,and of course the black triangle. I spend a good 20-30 minutes teaching toolbars in class.

The new OpenOffice.org 2.0, however, has a simpler approach. You choose View > Toolbars and you can see any of the 20 or so toolbars available. They pop up freefloating; just drag them to the top or side of the work area and they'll dock there and stay there.

Format Painter

One of the things I get asked about all the time in class is the format painter feature from Microsoft Word. It's a paintbrush icon that lets you take the formatting attributes of any text and apply it to any other text. Framemaker has it too.

OpenOffice.org finally has it. Look for it on the top object bar. Select the text that has the formatting you want, click the paintbrush icon, then select the text that you want to apply that formatting to. If you want to apply that formatting to multiple pieces of text, double-click the paintbrush icon instead of just selecting it, then click it again when you're done.

 

Mail Merge Wizard

The OpenOffice.org 1.x way of mail merging works really well. It's just that it's not obvious how to start. Very unwizardy. Now, there's a wizard. Choose Tools > Mail Merge Wizard and follow the wizard through.

If you like something a little more do-it-yourselfish, the approach from 1.x still works if you choose File > New > Database. Use this window to set up the data source as you did before by choosing Tools > Data Sources.

No Excel Macro Conversion

OpenOffice.org 2.0 still doesn't convert Excel macros. Consider just keeping a few Excel licenses around, or reevaluate whether you actually need the macros. Calc can do a lot of calculations without macros.

However, Now 65,536 Rows Per Spreadsheet

I've never really had to get my hands dirty with spreadsheets, but I understand that if you do, you need a lot of rows. The limit used to be around 32,000; now it's 65,536. 'Nuff said.

Finally...Wrapping Uses the Word Wrap

It's a trivial thing, but it makes me happy. For years, if you wanted to wrap text in a Calc cell, you had to choose the Line Break option. (Format > Cells > Alignment.) Now, the option is Wrap text automatically. Finally.

Lots of Cool New Shapes and Advanced Text Art

Anyone who's heard me talk about OpenOffice.org knows I'm crazy about Draw and the components that go across to Writer: plain drawing shapes, connector lines, Fontwork (like WordArt), etc.

All the new shapes leave the old stuff in the dust. These are just a few of the sets of new shapes available.

And if you had problems with the old fontwork, this is so much easier. Just insert one of the samples in the Fontwork gallery, then retype the text that you want.

The New Impress Look and Feel

I think the old Impress was the OpenOffice.org application most different from its Microsoft parallel. I spent a lot of time teaching stuff that should have been easier. With the new 2.0 Impress the interface is easier to figure out period, and more familiar for Powerpoint users. And the areas for viewing different aspects of the presentation and for navigating through are a whole lot easier to find. Plus, especially if you're using StarOffice 8, there are a bunch of nice new templates.

For More Information

If you want to read the whole list, go to http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/2.0/index.html  Or, of course, download the release candidate at www.openoffice.org  Or purchase StarOffice 8 from www.sun.com/staroffice.

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Tags: OpenOffice.org  open office  OpenOffice.org training  open office training  open source  open source training  StarOffice  Linux  switching to openoffice  education  features  tips 

Comments

[Sam Hiser]

LOLOL about the paint brush! I had the same exact feeling, silly& simple as that feature may be ;-)

I'm not sure if you have it on the site but your book covers default adjustments so thoroughly. Users I know would really enjoy some coverage of how to quickly modify some of the autocorrection default settings:

-turning on/off auto-completion
-turning on/of auto-correction
-editing exceptions

They find these things invasive when they first start working in the suite; and I always encourage them to tweek the exceptions a bit before giving up completely and turning things off. It's like the training requirement with voice-rec software: a little tuning up goes a long way and the tools become more of an extention of your brain.

[Solveig]

Hi Sam,

Yes, I'm so glad to be able to say Yes! to the paintbrush question. : )

>>> Users I know would really enjoy some coverage of how to quickly modify some of the autocorrection default settings...<<<

I incorporate customization items like the ones you mentioned, autocomplete, etc., into the first part of my Writer classes so that people can see the feature for a bit and then see quite soon that they can control it. Controlling the software rather than vice versa is a welcome respite from....well, let's just say, another office suite. : )

I think you've already found it but the customization blog I wrote, covering those topics, is here.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2005/10/test.html

~ Solveig