Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop

Chapter 7. Word Processing with StarWriter

StarOffice Writer (also known as “StarWriter”) is the word processor module included as one of six key components of StarOffice. StarWriter is a state-of-the-art software application, designed in look, feel, and function to be familiar to users of Microsoft Word. Yet StarWriter offers surprising new stability and flexibility. It allows you to create or import and edit text documents and publish them to a number of widely accepted file formats, including open standard XML and some new formats for small handheld devices.

Like JDS itself, StarOffice is distinguished by its stability on the system. Its other hallmark is the tight integration of its word processor, spreadsheet, and all other modules, which leads to a strong consistency in features, menu placement, and ease of use. The StarOffice modules are listed in Table 7-1. Covering modules in separate chapters (as we do for simplicity) risks giving the impression that they feel or behave like separate applications. In fact, the opposite is true: the modules work smoothly and consistently together as a holistic set of desktop tools.

Table 7-1. The modules of StarOffice

StarOffice module	Function
StarWriter	Word processor
StarCalc	Spreadsheet
StarImpress	Presentation
StarDraw	Graphics editor
StarHTML	Web (HTML) editor
StarMath	Math formulas editor

We cover StarWriter exclusively in this chapter, and StarCalc and StarImpress together in Chapter 8. We omit the remaining modules ...