The simplest way to make databases in OpenOffice.org

The simplest way to make databases in OpenOffice.org is a post from Free Software Magazine.

Gizmo’s Best Free Windows 7/Vista 64 bit Software

[updated 2009.7.20]

“Gizmo” Richards has a post on his picks for the Best Free Windows 7/Vista 64 bit Software.

This blogger tests everything and gives you the facts, in detail, so he’s an excellent resource for finding as much freeware as you can for your Windows 7/Vista 64-bit system.

Browser, firewall, anti-virus, office suite, and more are recommended here.

How to speed up OpenOffice

How to speed up OpenOffice is a Download Squad post on changing your settings for a faster startup of OpenOffice, by using more memory.

Page Numbers in OpenOffice.org 2.x Writer

Jatecblog has a post onPage Numbers in OpenOffice.org 2.x Writer.

“If you are used to Microsoft Word, you may have trouble setting up automatic page numbers in OpenOffice.org. However, it is actually quite simple to do, the menu options are just moved around.”

OOExtras for OpenOffice

If you use the freeware open source program OpenOffice (or the enhanced version OxygenOffice), check the extras available on OOExtras for this program.

Art, labels, languages, books, more.

Zotero is not a sword-swinging hero

Zotero is actually a Firefox add-on designed to “help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources”.

It has features like:

Automatic capture of citation information from web pages

Storage of PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages

Flexible notetaking with autosave

Fast, as-you-type search through your materials

Playlist-like library organization, including saved searches (smart collections) and tags

Integration with Word (use the Word extension) and OpenOffice (use the OpenOffice extention)

Integration with WordPress and other blogging software

From the Institute of Museum and Library Services: “Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like EndNote)—the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways. Zotero integrates tightly with online resources; it can sense when users are viewing a book, article, or other object on the web, and—on many major research and library sites—find and automatically save the full reference information for the item in the correct fields. Since it lives in the web browser, it can effortlessly transmit information to, and receive information from, other web services and applications; since it runs on one’s personal computer, it can also communicate with software running there (such as Microsoft Word). And it can be used offline as well (e.g., on a plane, in an archive without WiFi).”

OpenOffice for Macs = NeoOffice

While OpenOffice is the open source answer to Microsoft Office on Windows, for Macs you can use the alternative NeoOffice.

“NeoOffice is a full-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs) for Mac OS X. Based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.

Released as free, open source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL), NeoOffice is fully functional and stable enough for everyday use. The software is actively developed, so improvements and small updates are made available on a regular basis.”

Here’s looking at you, Office

Microsoft Office viewers are available if you don’t have Microsoft Office programs. Click here for the download page for viewers for all MS Office products, Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook, Access, and Visio.

Remember: you can see the files with these viewers, but you cannot edit them in any way.

You can also use OpenOffice (freeware compatible with MS Office Suite before 2007) to view Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and Access files (before 2007) as well as edit and save them to MS Office formats such as 97-2003 formats.

Remember: you must not use 2007 formats (ending in “x” such as “.docx“) if you want to use other programs such as OpenOffice, WordPerfect, etc. to view or edit them reliably.

OpenOffice and OxygenOffice freeware

[last updated May 11, 2008]

Microsoft sells its software, so the University is not able to provide free copies of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) to anyone. The University has to pay for licenses to use that software on campus computers.Student discounts are available from Microsoft and through many distributors.
However, a FREE substitute is OpenOffice, which can save documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats. This would allow you to work in OpenOffice at home, for example, and save in a Microsoft Office format to bring to use on campus.
The software is free, but requires very large downloads (93MB for version 2.0.3, for example). You can also get a version from the Library Software CD-ROM which can be checked out overnight from the Library. For an enhanced version of this with more extras, try OxygenOffice Professional.

OxygenOffice has all the simple extras including everything from a rich clip art gallery to variety of standard document templates (CV, greeting cards, etc.), plus over 90 text fonts, OOOWikipedia (an integrated Wikipedia Search Tools), ability to run Visual Basic for Applications from Calc (the OpenOffice alternative to “Excel”), ability to import Office Open XML (Microsoft Office 2007), and option to export (save as) documents to PDF, LaTex and MediWiki. To top it all off, OOOP has been able to integrate importing of Works and WordPerfect documents.

Note: there’s a lot of file names listed at the site, but the one to select for English is usually the shortest: OOo_2.3.1_071211_Win32Intel_install.exe (for example) the ones with “install_” and more letters (such as “install_de.exe” are non-English language versions. This is for 32-bit Windows. If installing on a Linux system, the shortest file name is usually the English version, again.

Note: 64 bit Linux version are avaliable from these sites:

• http://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/oxygenoffice/
• ftp://ftp.devall.hu/oxygenoffice/
• http://mirror.nedudu.hu/ooop/

There are also versions of OpenOffice which can be run from a USB Flash drive. Click here for links.