Operation Manual

Using OpenOffice.org
If you would prefer not to use a cloud-based service, the alternative is to install OpenOffice.org. Designed as an open-source,
cross-platform alternative to the popular Microsoft Office suite, OpenOffice.org is powerful and offers just as much functionality
as its closed-source inspiration.
That functionality comes at a cost, however. The OpenOffice.org package is large, taking up nearly 400 MB of space on the Pi’s
SD card once all the dependencies are included. That can be a problem: in its default setup, the recommended Debian
distribution has less free space available on the SD card than OpenOffice.org requires. (For more information on the partition
layout of the Debian distribution, see the “File System Layout” section in Chapter 2, “Linux System Administration”.)
If you want to install OpenOffice.org, you’ll need a 4 GB or larger SD card. You’ll also need to resize the root filesystem to
make use of the SD card’s free space. For instructions on doing this, see Chapter 5, “Partition Management”. Make sure you
perform this task before continuing with this chapter, or you’ll find your Pi’s SD card running out of space before you can use
OpenOffice.org.
With enough free space on the SD card, installing OpenOffice.org is no more complex than installing any other package.
Although it comes bundled with a great deal of additional packages, a single metapackage takes care of everything and installs
the software with a single command. Open a terminal window and type the following:
sudo apt-get install openoffice.org
If you receive error messages saying files are missing when you’re installing software like OpenOffice.org, the package cache is likely out of date.
Run the command sudo apt-get update to refresh the cache, and then try again. (See Chapter 2, “Linux System Administration” for more details.)
When installed, OpenOffice.org will appear as a series of entries in the Applications Menu in the Pi’s desktop environment.
These entries are as follows:
• OpenOffice.org—The main application, which provides links to the individual sections of the suite
• OpenOffice.org Calc—The spreadsheet application, equivalent to Microsoft Excel
• OpenOffice.org Draw—A vector illustration application, designed for drawing high-quality scalable images for use as clipart
in other OpenOffice.org programs
• OpenOffice.org Impress—The presentation application, equivalent to Microsoft PowerPoint
• OpenOffice.org Math—A small yet powerful package designed to make it easy to create and edit scientific formulae and
equations for embedding in other OpenOffice.org programs
• OpenOffice.org Writer—The word processor application, equivalent to Microsoft Word (see Figure 8-2)
Figure 8-2: OpenOffice.org Writer running on the Raspberry Pi