Addon tools for OpenOffice.org Writer

I received this information a while ago and have been meaning to blog about it for some time.

http://nothickmanuals.info/doku.php/writertools

After a cursory look, it's a set of macros that provide the following tools:

• Lookup Tool allows you to lookup the currently selected word in several online references, including Cambridge Dictionaries, WordNet, and Google Define.
• Google Translate allows users to quickly translate selected text fragments between different languages using the Google Translate service.
• Show on the Map tool allows you to select a city, a street name, or a postal code and map it using the Multimap service.
• Email Backup can be used to quickly send a backup copy of the currently opened document to a specified email address.
• Multi-format Backup macro saves the currently opened Writer document in the Word, RTF, and TXT formats. The backup files are stored in a separate folder with a date stamp. On Linux, the macro also archives the resulting folder using the tar utility.
• Remote Backup allows you to quickly save a backup copy of the current document on a FTP server.
• Convert to DokuWiki converts the current document into DokuWiki format.
• Start/Stop Timer tool can be used to keep tabs on time spent on the currently opened document and save the time data (the document name, used time, and date) in the accompanying WriterDB database.
• Word Hunt Game is a simple game, where you have to guess the word randomly picked by Writer.
• Word of the Day tool picks and displays a random word and its definition from the from the accompanying WriterDB database. As a writer, you may often come across a new word or an interesting expression. The WriterDB database allows you to store your language findings in one place, while the Word of the Day tool helps you to keep them active in your memory.
• Add to Basket tool copies the currently selected text fragment into the basket table in the WriterDB database. It’s perfect for storing notes and text snippets.

The web site states that the Writer’s Tools extension is released under GNU GPL and that Writer’s Tools is very much a work in progress.

Once installed, you get this menu.

The lookup tool, for instance, gives you this window at first:

You then get this window or a similar one with the results.

Converting to docuwiki looks like this:

I got an error trying to use the add to basket feature. I might or might not have fully set up the database correctly.

Here's the first window of the translation feature:

And the results.
Places to Stay and Things to Do was translated into Plätze zum zu bleiben und Sachen zum zu tun by Google.

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Comments

[ak]

Hi,

Just a quick email about office. I recently got a version of office 2007 and to be honest it looks good but for me it seems to be a difficult to work with becuase i got used to working with office 2003/2000. I recently changed jobs from a company with 200,000 employees to another one in financial services of equal size, both multinational. I think that if you want open office to succeed, especially in the financial world, you have to give the power to users to program it. Excel and office has vba behind it, but you have to use c++ to optimize performance. I think that if open office uses a programming language to automate tasks (preferably c++ or java) and make it relatively easy to build applications on it, or to just automate some things, then you will have a chance to beat office in the financial services arena, because vba and c++ for excel are simply just not good enough.

[Solveig]

Hi AK,

I think the OpenOffice.org macro programming language provides a lot of power; have you looked at it and tried to do what you need?

Solveig

[Agentyikes]

Actually, this is not a comment. I cannot have writer's tools enabled in my openoffice 2.0.