Getting Started Guide

– You do not need to know which application was used to create a particular
file. For example, you can open a Draw file from Writer.
• Granularity. Usually, if you change an option, it affects all components.
However, OOo options can be set at a component level or even document level.
• File compatibility. In addition to its native OpenDocument formats, OOo
includes PDF and Flash export capabilities, as well as support for opening and
saving files in many common formats including Microsoft Office, HTML, XML,
WordPerfect, and Lotus 1-2-3 formats. New in OOo3 (using an extension): the
ability to import and edit some PDF files.
• No vendor lock-in. OOo3 uses OpenDocument, an XML (eXtensible Markup
Language) file format developed as an industry standard by OASIS
(Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards).
These files can easily be unzipped and read by any text editor, and their
framework is open and published.
• You have a voice. Enhancements, software fixes, and release dates are
community-driven. You can join the community and affect the course of the
product you use.
You can read more about OpenOffice.org, its mission, history, licensing, and other
organizational information on the OpenOffice.org website,
http://www.openoffice.org/.
Minimum requirements
OpenOffice.org 3.x requires one of the following operating systems:
• Microsoft Windows 2000 (Service Pack 2 or higher), XP, Vista, or 7
• GNU/Linux Kernel version 2.4 and glibc 2.3.2 or higher (starting with OOo 3.3
glibc2 version 2.5 or higher is required)
• Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or higher
• Solaris 10 OS or higher
Some OpenOffice.org features (wizards and the HSQLDB database engine) require
that the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.5.x or higher be installed on your
computer. Although OOo will work without Java support, some features will not be
available. You can download OOo for some operating systems with or without JRE
included. If you have a slow machine and do not often need the features requiring
JRE, you can try to disable it to speed up the loading of the program.
For a more detailed (and up-to-date) listing of requirements, see the OpenOffice.org
website, http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/sys_reqs_30.html.
How to get the software
Many new computers come with OpenOffice.org installed. In addition, most Linux
distributions, such as Ubuntu, include OpenOffice.org.
If you need to install it yourself, you can download the installation package from the
project’s home page or by using a Peer to Peer client such as BitTorrent. Instructions
for BitTorrent are here: http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/.
The installation package is approximately 150MB. People with slow Internet
connections may prefer to purchase a copy on a CD or DVD from a third-party
distributor. The project maintains a list of distributors, but the distributors are not
12 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3.3