Office Tools

There are two primary office suite recommendations for Fedora users: the OpenOffice.org suite for GNOME desktop users and KOffice suite for the KDE desktop. Each suite of office tools includes presentation, spreadsheet, and word processing applications. Additional office applications are also available depending on the office suite selected.

Remember both office suites will run on any Fedora desktop environment. The recommendation is only the office suite best optimized for a specific desktop environment, such as GNOME or KDE. Once installed, all office tools are available from the Applications > Office menu or as icons located in the menu bar or on the desktop.

A few other programs of interest are Abiword for word processing, gLabels is a program for creating labels and business cards for the GNOME desktop environment, and Gnumeric a GNOME spreadsheet.

To install these packages, please read the chapter on managing software. You can install them by either using the PackageKit application or on the command line by using Yum.

OpenOffice.org Applications

OpenOffice.org creates documents in open standards formats, such as OpenDocument (.ODF), Rich Text Format (.RTF), and HTML. It can also read, edit, and write documents in Microsoft Office formats, such as Word (.DOC), Excel (.XLS), and PowerPoint (.PPT), with a high degree of compatibility. Files can be exported in PDF format without the need of additional software. The most used Openoffice.org programs are:

OpenOffice.org Impress

File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Office openofficeorg-impress.png OpenOffice.org Impress Creates and performs presentations.

Start the application by clicking on Applications > Office > OpenOffice.org Impress.
The first window asks you to choose Empty presentation, From template, or Open existing presentation.

Select Empty presentation to build your slide(s) from scratch, or
The From Template button for further configuration:

Presentations allow you to choose:

Default
Introducing a New Product
Recommendation of a Strategy

Presentation Backgrounds loads the window with several background choices.

Open existing presentation opens a presentation file.

Choose the [Next] key to Select a slide design and Select an output medium.
Another click on [Next] opens the Presentation Wizard to set up your presentation. You can select the Effect and Speed of slide transition, and either Default or Automatic for the Type of Presentation you want.
The[Create] button opens your presentation.
The application opens with the work area, top menu and a drawing menu on the bottom. When you roll your mouse over the icons a description of its function pops up.

Press Help or the [F1] key to open the OpenOffice.org Impress help manual.

For details on using OpenOffice.org Impress. see this Tutorial

OpenOffice.org Calc

File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Office openofficeorg-calc.png OpenOffice.org Calc is a full featured spreadsheet program.

Start the application by clicking on Applications > Office > OpenOffice.org Calc.
Major functions of the top menu are:

File lets you create New documents, Open and Close a file, Export and Print. It has the Wizards link to create different templates.
Edit allows you to Cut, Copy, and Paste, and Delete Cells and Spreadsheets, and to Copy and Move Spreadsheets.
View lets you select Toolbars, see Page Breaks, and Zoom in and out.
With the Insert button you can insert Cells, Rows, Sheets, Files, Pictures, Sounds, Functions, Special Characters, and Links.
Under Format the Cells, Rows, Columns, and Sheet can be formatted, set-up the Page and Print Ranges. Change Case ans Styles. It also provides the ability to Anchor, Align, Arrange, Flip, Group, and manipulate Graphics.
Tools can check Spelling, access the Thesaurus, use the filters Detective, Goal Seek, Solver, and Scenarios. Configure AutoCorrect, Share, Merge, and Protect the document. You can run Macros, Extension Manager, Customize the application, and set-up various Options.
Selecting Data you can manipulate the data such as Define or Select Range, Sort, Filter, and Group and Outline.
The Window key lets you open a New Window, Close Window, and Split or Freeze the current window. It also lists any open files on the bottom of the drop-down menu.
Press Help or the [F1] key to open the OpenOffice.org Calc help manual.

The row of icons under the top menu bar contains the most frequently used functions plus a few icons for data manipulation.
The third menu panel allows you to configure the appearance of your data, such as font selection, alignment, font, bullets, indentations, bolding, and italicizing.
The fourth panel shows the address of the cell you are pointing to and the data window shows what the cell contains.
The panel at the bottom of the spreadsheet shows which spreadsheet is currently selected and how many worksheets are in the file.

Worksheets can be added by going to the top menu panel and clicking on Insert > Sheet > [OK] button, or choose where you want the new spreadsheet placed, the number of spreadsheets you want, and the name if you want something other than the default.
A right mouse click on the spreadsheet tab brings up a short menu that allows you to Insert, Delete, Rename, Move/Copy, Select All, Cut, or Copy the spreadsheet.

For details on using OpenOffice.org Calc. see this Tutorial

OpenOffice.org Writer

File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Office openofficeorg-writer.png OpenOffice.org Writer is a word processing program.

Start the application by clicking on Applications > Office > OpenOffice.org Writer.
Major functions of the top menu are:

File lets you create New documents, Open and Close a file, Export and Print. It has the Wizards link to create different templates.
Edit allows you to Cut, Copy, and Paste, Compare, Select Text, turn on and configure Auto-Text, and Find and Replace.
View lets you select the type of Layout, Status Bar, Ruler, Toolbars, Text Boundaries, Field Names, Non-printing Characters, Hidden Paragraphs, Full Screen and Zoom in and out.
With the Insert button you can insert Manual Breaks, Fields, Special Characters, Formatting Marks, Hyperlinks, Headers, Footers, Footnotes, Bookmarks, Cross-reference, Indexes, and Tables, Envelopes, Tables, Horizontal Ruler, Pictures, Movies and Sound, Objects, Floating Frames, and Files.
Under Format you can format Characters, Paragraphs, Bullets and Numbering, Page, Title Page, Change Case, configure Columns, Styles andd Formatting. You can also Anchor Wrap, Align, Flip, and Group text, and format Objects, Frames, and Pictures.
Tables allows you to Insert, Delete, Select, and manipulate the Table's Cells. You can also format a Table's Cells, Rows and Columns, add Formulas and access a Table's Properties.
Selecting Tools gives you access to Spelling and Grammar, Thesaurus, Word Count, Auto correction, Outline and Line Numbering, Footnotes, Gallery, Media Player, Bibliography Database, and Mail Merge Wizard. You can also Sort, Calculate, change and format Macros and Filters, Customize Menus, Keyboard, Toolbars and Events. Options lets you configure your User Data.
The Window key lets you open a New Window, Close Window, and lists any open files on the bottom of the drop-down menu.
Press Help or the [F1] key to open the OpenOffice.org Writer help manual.

The row of icons under the top menu bar contains the most frequently used functions plus a few icons for data manipulation.
The third menu panel allows you to configure the appearance of your document, such as font selection, alignment, font, bullets, indentations, bolding, and italicizing.
The panel at the bottom of the document contains inset windows, some of which have menu access by double clicking on the window. In this panel is shown the number of pages the document contains, the page style being used, the language, indicator of Type-Over or Insert, page layout view, and a zoom in and out bar.

For details on using OpenOffice.org Writer. see this Tutorial

For the most up-to-date information on all of OpenOffice.org's office program offerings, visit the official site OpenOffice.org.

KOffice

The KOffice suite is optimized for the KDE desktop environment. The KOffice applications also create documents and files in open standards formats including OpenDocument (.ODF), Rich Text Format (.RTF), and HTML. Officially, the KOffice FAQ recommends using .RTF or .PDF formats for compatibility with Microsoft Word. KOffice does support Microsoft file formats, but there are issues with compatibility.

For the most up-to-date information on all of KOffice's program offerings, visit the official KOffice site. This site also includes detailed documentation and help for each individual KOffice program.

KPresenter

File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Office kpresenter.png KPresenter is the KOffice application for creating and performing presentations.

Open Kpresenter by selecting the Kickoff Application Launcher > Office > Slide Presentations (KPresenter).
The first window contains options of opening Recent or Existing documents, the type of Template or "Screen Presentation you want, as well as a menu bar.

On the menu bar, chose File to create a New file, Open or Import a file, or Quit the application.
On the Settings drop-down menu you can select Show Toolbar, Configure Shortcuts or Configure Toolbars.
Help or the [F1] button opens the KPresenter Handbook, and Report a Bug.

After you have selected the disired Template press the [Use This Template] key and check the box Alsways use this template to make it the program default.
This window has three menu panels on the top, a workspace with three windows, and a panel running along the bottom.

The first menu row consists of:

File which allow you to create a New file, Open, Save, Import, Export, and Mail files. You can Create an HTML Slideshow or Memory Stck Slideshow, use the Template Manger, Use Current Slide as Default Template, Print, Preview, Close, or Quit the presentation.
Edit drop-down lets you Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy Paste, Delete, Select All, Deselect, Find, Replace, Copy Slide, Duplicate and Delete a Slide, and to Duplicate an Object.
In the View menu you select New View, Close All Views, Split View, Remove View, Hide the Sidebar, Notebar, or Slide Master. It also allow Formatting of Characters, show or hide Guide Lines, Grid, and the Snap to Grid, and Zoom in or out. When you select these options they show up in the work area windows.
Under Format you can Select, Rotate, Zoom, adjust the Properties, Arrange, Align, Group, Ungroup and Shadow Objects. Here you can also change the Page Layout, Slide Background, and Enable Doument Headers and Footers.
Choosing Text you can switch to the Default Format, chose Fonts, configure Paragraphs and color. The Style Manager lets your create your own styles or you can choose Style which lists the availblbe styles. You can also Align the text, chose to add Numbers or Bullets by selecting Type. There are options to manipulate an Object, Change Case, turn on, or off, the Auto Spellcheck and Autocorrection.
Slide Show allows configuration of the Slide Show, Objects, and Slide Transition. In this menu you can Start and Customize the slide show, and navigate the presentation manually.
Settings menu lets you choose the Toolbars you want to use, you can Configure Autocorrection, Completion, Shortcuts, Toolbars, and KPresenter.

The second row contains icons that are shortcuts of the top menu panel for Drawing, Text, and Object formatting. Rolling you mouse over an icon opens a small window that lists it's function.
The third menu panel is also made up of shortcut icons to work with Text and Slideshow configuration and navigation. Many of the icons in the menu panels are grayed-out until a selection is made on the slide in the work area window.
The bottom panel shows the Slide number currently being worked on and the number of slides in the presentation, Main Slide Content or attributes, the Zoom percentage, and current measurement, Centimeters or Inches.