OpenOffice

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OpenOffice is a well known cross-platform open source office suite. It's one of the most popular and featureful competitors to Microsoft Office. NeoOffice is a Mac OS X version of OpenOffice.org which integrates better with the OS X user interface.

Contents 1 Versions 1.1 OpenOffice for Mac OS X 2 Features and How-Tos 2.1 Performance 2.2 Connecting to MySQL 3 External Links

[edit] Versions

[edit] OpenOffice for Mac OS X

Version 3 of OpenOffice is the first to be native on Mac OS X. Prior versions required X11, or the use of NeoOffice which relied on Java. Therefore OpenOffice 3 greatly improves performance and usability for Mac users.

[edit] Features and How-Tos

[edit] Performance

Performance can be improved, particularly during launch, by not integrating the Java runtime environment. Java is only used in OpenOffice for a few particular tasks and is often not required for most standard use cases. Loading of Java can be turned off in the Java section of the Preferences / Options window by simply unchecking the top check box.

[edit] Connecting to MySQL

(Note this has been tested with NeoOffice. The process should be similar, if not identical, in OpenOffice)

OpenOffice supports database connectivity. This allows for graphically browsing and querying a database, as well as linking a database directly to a spreadsheet. Connectivity to MySQL is possible through JDBC.

1. Download and install the MySQL JDBC driver from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/. On a Mac the JAR should be placed in /Library/Java/Extensions.
2. For some reason NeoOffice doesn't automatically recognize the new driver classes, so if you're using NeoOffice...
   1. Open the Preferences window
   2. Open the NeoOffice section
   3. Go to the Java section
   4. Press the Class Path... button on the right
   5. Press Add Archive...
   6. Choose the JAR file previously downloaded
   7. It should now appear in the list, so press OK to the close the Class Path window and OK again to close the preferences
3. Choose "Database" in OpenOffice's main menu
4. Choose "Connect to an existing database" and select MySQL in the drop-down. Press Next.
5. "Connect using JDBC". Press Next.
6. Enter the database details and press Test Class. If the driver was properly loaded press Next.
7. Enter the login info and test the connectivity. Press Next.
8. Save the settings in an OpenOffice database file.

To use the data in a spreadsheet go to the View menu and select Data Sources.

[edit] External Links

• OpenOffice.org