StarOffice
StarOffice is the commercial version of
OpenOffice.org
,
produced and distributed by Sun Microsystems.
StarOffice is an office suite, including a
applications for word processing,
presentations,
vector graphics,
formula editing,
spreadsheet calculations, and
databases.
It is available for many different platforms, including Microsoft Windows,
various Unix systems with the X Window System, GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X.
Sun Microsystems bought the German company StarDivision in 1999
and with it the office suite
StarOffice.
Shortly after this purchase, Sun Microsystems decided to release the source code
to the office suite as open source under the name OpenOffice.org.
Various versions of StarOffice have been released:
- StarOffice 5.2 is the original from StarDivision.
- StarOffice 6 is based on OpenOffice.org release 1.0.
- StarOffice 7 is based on OpenOffice.org release 1.1.
- StarOffice 8 is based on OpenOffice.org release 2.X.
You can learn more about StarOffice at Sun's StarOffice product page.
There are other derivatives/editions of OpenOffice.org
-
NeoOffice is an open source
version for Mac OS X that adds full support for the
Aqua user interface. The general ports of OOo to Mac OS X require an X Window extension
that does use it's own look and feel for user interactions.
-
OpenOffice.org Novell Edition
is an open source version maintained by Novell. It adds new
components that are developed by Novell Inc. and donated back to the full project,
but haven't made it yet back into the general code base.
-
OxygenOffice is a free and
enhanced version of OpenOffice.org. It boasts a lot of
extra features including extra templates, fonts,
cliparts, samples and other
major improvements.
-
Go-oo is a separate edition
made by like-minded developers that focuses on improved and faster performance
for most OpenOffice applications.
-
RedOffice is a Chinese language
edition of OpenOffice.org developed by Redflag Chinese 2000 Software Co., Ltd.
Besides Chinese language support it has an improved interface and import features
for China's Uniform Office Format (UOF).
-
EuroOffice is a free OpenOffice.org
edition that focuses on extra functionality through the use of a number of free and non-free
OpenOffice.org extensions.
-
Lotus Symphony is an edition
developed by IBM based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.4. It is available at no charge and has
Word Processing, Spreadsheet and Presentation applications. It can be installed in
Windows and Linux.
Using StarOffice
As a close cousin of OpenOffie.org, you can use all screencasts in Plan-B as well. In fact in most cases you won't notice any difference.
The following screencasts demonstrate features of OpenOffice.org such as how to start using Open Office:
- Download OpenOffice.org from the official website.
- Installing OpenOffice.org under Windows®.
- Starting OpenOffice.org for the first time and walking through the registration process.
- Upgrading OpenOffice.org under Windows®.
- Uninstalling OpenOffice.org under Windows®.
- Determine what version of OpenOffice.org is running, using the "About" dialog.
- Installing OpenOffice.org under Windows®.
OpenOffice.org™ is a registered trademark of Oracle.
LibreOffice™ is a trademark of The Document Foundation.
Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
in the United States and other countries.
