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OpenOffice.org (OOo for short) is a great office suite for Linux and pretty much any other
operating system, but can always use improvement. This is especially true for
templates and clip art. Fortunately, the open source community provides many add-ons
or extensions. Here’s a look at eight different ones:
English Templates by OxygenOffice
One of the biggest features you might miss from Microsoft Office is their
templates. This might especially be the case now that they have integrated the
online user-submitted templates, giving you even more choices. In OOo, all you
get is two presentation templates, an assortment of presentation templates, and
a few wizards to help make letters, faxes, and agendas–the bare minimum. Then
on a different menu (File > New), you’ll find shortcuts to work with labels and
business cards.
However, the OOo community provides many more templates. In addition to this
extension, OxygenOffice offers their templates integrated with their
enhanced release of OOo.
Either way, you’ll find the basic templates:
- Letters and Faxes
- Resumes and CVs
- Presentations and presentation backgrounds
- Business cards
- Budget calculators
- Notes and to-do lists
- Mailing and CD labels
- Press releases
- Invoices, special documents, and forms
After you install the extension, you can easily bring these up in OOo: click
File > New > Templates and Documents. You’ll find many more folders or
categories. Select one and hit Open to get started with it.
Gallery of Clipart by OxygenOffice
OOo also lacks in the media department. You won’t find any neat clip art or
photos. The most you’ll find is some simple backgrounds images, bullets, webpage
graphics, and sound clip effects. For more media to spruce up your documents,
you can download third-party galleries. OxygenOffice provides a clip art gallery
of the basics:
- Animals
- Arrows
- Cars
- Clock
- Electronic parts
- Flags
- Fruits
- Maps
- Objects
- People
- Photos
- Signs
- Smiles
After it’s installed, simply click the Gallery button (it’s an image of a
hanging picture) on the Standard toolbar of OOo. You’ll find many more themes or
categories of media. To hide the Gallery, simply click the toolbar button again.
You may still also look into using
Microsoft’s Online Clipart and
Media–be sure to double-check the copyright and license info.
Read the rest at Linux Planet.
