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Hacking OpenOffice

Posted by michael on from the 1337 dept.

prostoalex writes "Peter Sefton appreciates OpenOffice Writer's open and documented XML format and hence tries to customize and configure OO Writer to his own liking. In the article on XML.com he plays with OpenOffice XML, introduces an XSTL style sheet to a Writer document, creates a keyboard shortcut for applying his own style, and creates a macro."

12 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Or you can use a scripting language... by tcopeland · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ...that has an Open Office object model, i.e., Ruby's OO4R:
    ooo = OOo::Doc.new( filename )
    new_text = "This is the NEW text added #{Time.new.to_s}"
    ooo.insert( new_text );
    res_ary = ooo.find( /NEW/ )
    ooo.insert_heading( "This is the heading", 1 )
    ooo.save
    --
    The Army reading list
  2. Waiting for the script templates or tools.... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here at work many of the users are switched over to OO.O except for the producers in the video department.

    why? there are no scriptwriting tools for OO.o like there are for Word 97.

    there are auto scriptwriter formatting plugins and two column scriptwriting templates and tools that make their life easy.

    unfortunatlly nobody has released for sale or even attempted to write the equiliviant for OO.o.

    we paid $29.95 to $49.95 each machine for those scriptwriting toolkits, and would happily pay the same for OO.o equiliviants.

    but nobody is interested in making them.

    Let alone a version of any wordprocessor geared to Scriptwriting. I know there will never ever be a "final draft" for linux released or even an open source project like it ever started. But I at least hold out some hope for scriptwriting tools for Open Office.org to come into existance someday.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  3. Emacs keybindings by freelunch · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I created them for an early version but my changes were not compatible with more recent versions.

    The default key bindings drive me nuts.

    What would it take to get emacs bindings into the release?

  4. Now if only... by __int64 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    they could introduce a hack to remove all the busted-ugly icons and user interface.
    (I'm not trolling, I use it; I'd just like to see it get a +1 pretty modifier.)

    1. Re:Now if only... by GeorgeNorton · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Like this?
      OpenOffice.org 2 also has new icons, you can see them in the development snapshots.

  5. COM Automation by jmertic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has any one used the COM Automation Interface much? I've read the specs and it seems similar to MS Office, but is any one seeing any improvements by using OO instead of MS Office. I've done quite a bit of programming with Word and Excel, and would love to move them over to OO so I could bundle it with our app.

  6. Re:WYSIWYG?!? by ari_j · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The problem with LaTeX is that it's impossible to Google for document classes or other documents about it, because of the porn that comes up. Vanilla TeX has the same problem, except that you get derogatory pages about the President, instead.

  7. Please hack open office's SIZE by ajs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I had to remove OOo from my home box last night. I needed the disk space back. Why does a office suite on a Linux box have to take up a gig of disk?!

    1. Re:Please hack open office's SIZE by Coryoth · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I had to remove OOo from my home box last night. I needed the disk space back. Why does a office suite on a Linux box have to take up a gig of disk?!

      I've had similar issues. It's the i18n module that is most annoying to me, in that it is listed as a dependency (and so gets downloaded and installed) but isn't really required in a lot of cases. Yes the i18n support is a great thing... but could the packagers at the distros make it a little more optional?

      Jedidiah.

      --
      Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
  8. How to include grammar checker? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Last time I check, OOO maintainers are playing the 'we don't need stinking grammar checker' politics on this issue. For the few tools that do (eg: Link Grammar, Queerqueq), they never talk with each other.

  9. Re:guess how long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ----guess how long people will develop a firefox/mozilla extension to view the openoffice.org document directly in firefox/mozilla?

    This already exists as an option within OpenOffice. Have tried it and it works well.

  10. Re:Fast Open? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Open office is not a word proccessor, it's a office suite.

    If you don't use the other stuff, don't install it, the entire package will startup faster, because the only thing in the package then is the word proccessor.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.