What is Open Office? How does it work? What is the function of its products?

Introduction to Open Office: Open Source or the open software forum for all is publishing and promoting an integrated software called Open Office worldwide for free use by all. Open Office is a leading general office management software for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, database etc., which increases office productivity manifold. This software can be downloaded and used completely free of charge with the facility of use on any type of computer in different languages. Current versions of Open Office software can easily import or export data or files used in other Office suites. Open Office has the facility to save documents or files in international open standard formats. This ensures the portability of OpenOffice files.

Among the various programs in the OpenOffice.org suite are --

• Their word processing program is called Writer. 

• And their spreadsheet analysis program is called Calc.

• The presentation program is Impress.

• The database program is Base.

• The paint and drawing program is called Draw.

Their work is discussed in detail below:

Writer: Writer of Open Office software package is a free word processing software. Open Office Writer is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word or Corel Word Perfect. Writer is able to work on various operating systems like Microsoft Windows, MacOS X UNIX LINUX Sun Solaris etc. Writer can open and save DOC, DOCX, RTF, and XHTML documents.

Calc: Calc from the Open Office software package is a free spreadsheet analysis software. Calc is a spreadsheet analysis program similar to Microsoft Excel or Corel Quantro-Pro. Calc has almost all the features that a standard spreadsheet would have. Able to open and save spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel file format (ixis). Calc has several features that Microsoft Excel does not have. For example, Calc can perform spreadsheet analysis directly on PDF files. Calc is able to work on various operating systems like Microsoft Windows, MacOS-X, UNIX, LINUX, Sun Solaris etc. Traditional versions of Calc have a maximum of 65,536 rows, 1,024 columns per sheet, and can scan and save a total of 256 sheets. Apart from that, Calc supports various file formats like DIF, CSV, HTML,

Supports SXC, UOF SLK, SDC, DBF etc. Although Calc's default file format is MS Excelanatix, it can save ODF-ISO/IEC 26300:2006 files in the international standard Open Document Format.

Impress: Impress is a free presentation software of Open Office Suite. It is a program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint or Corel Presentations. Impress has almost all the features of a standard presentation or presentation program. It can open, edit and save presentation files in Microsoft PowerPoint file format. Impress is capable of creating PDF files directly from presentation files. In addition, Impress can export presentations to SWF files on any computer that already has Flash Player installed.

Base: Base is a powerful database management program of the Open Office software package. User can create database as per requirement through database wizard. Database editing, querying, creating forms and reports etc. can be done through Baz. Base HSQL, relational database engine is built through Java programming language. Base users can connect to MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle through ODBC or JBDC driver. For example, family budget and accounting, office payroll, inventory, student test results, etc.

Draw: A powerful graphics design program in the OpenOffice software package. This graphic program has enough tools to design everything from sketches to complex graphics within a maximum of 300cm x 300cm pages. 5 Can work with various file formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and WMF. Draw can also generate flash compatible swi files directly. Different types of text, clipart, images, drawings, etc. can be used to create beautiful designs using the various tools of Draw. Rendering tools can be used to create textures or backgrounds similar to real photos. Designs can be presented attractively through the use of textures.

Newsgroup: Newgroup is a collection of messages, in which individuals or office workers of different levels can post news or messages and only authorized users can view them. However, most newsgroups have a moderator who is in charge of managing the newsgroup, who can remove any objectionable/unsupported news, block or suspend a user's access to the newsgroup. Newsgroup has made significant contributions to office automation. Office workers can always stay updated on all office matters. Note that only those who have the permission to read Newsap can read this news. There are special types of newsgroup readers for reading news. But a web browser is sufficient for reading modern newsgroups. Discussion boards or message boards work basically like Newgroups.

Mailing List: Mailing addresses of various levels of office staff are stored in the mailing list. As a result, you can contact whoever you need whenever you want. As a result, the productivity of an office is greatly increased.

Whiteboard: Whiteboard is a suitable way to communicate in real time between the employees of different levels of the office through the Internet. In addition to color-based communication systems, whiteboards also have graphical or image-based tools. As a result the user can easily understand the message. Through the whiteboard, multiple users can write, edit, review and update a document at the same time from different locations connected through the Internet, pictures, images, art, equations etc. When a user changes a document in the whiteboard area, all other users can immediately see it, commenting if necessary, which all users can see together.

Groupware: Thanks to the computer network and the Internet, everyone can work together even if they are at different geographical distances. Groupware is a helpful software program in doing this. Groupware software is used especially when the members of a team work together but they are not in the same place or it is not possible to meet with each other all the time. Some of the features and services of Groupware software are mentioned below. namely

(i) Active members of a group can communicate with each other.

(ii) Allowing team members to provide feedback separately and for all to view and comment on it.

(iii) may share one's information with another;

(iv) Electronic meetings or meetings may be held.

(v) May prepare work schedule.

(vi) E-mail may be generated.

Some popular groupware software are Lotus Notes, Open Text Livelink etc. In addition, Grove is a software tool that performs groupware work on peer-to-peer networked systems. Its advantage is that one member can communicate directly with another member through the Internet. But for this they do not need to use any central server. The Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator web browser programs also include some features of groupware software. For example: e-mail, electronic scheduling, calendaring, audio and data conferencing, discussion groups and databases, etc.